The article is devoted to the theoretical and empirical study of the relationship between the moral normativity of a professional teacher and the motivation for success. The article analyzes the concept of moral normativity (from the point of view of the proposed conventional approaches) as a predictor of the teacher's professional activity. In the context of the study of the influence of moral normativity on the success of professional activity, the authors turn to the phenomenon of "macchiavelism", which reflects the existence of a high correlation of the need to achieve goals with a low moral normativity of the individual.The empirical part of the study presents the results of the correlation analysis of the indicator of moral normativity with various indicators that determine the motivation for success, on a sample of 150 future teachers of physical culture and sports profile (graduates of the Volga State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kazan). The results obtained indicate the ambiguity of the relationship between moral normativity and motivation for success in the context of professional pedagogical activity.