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Status attainment research has shown that people's mental ability (intelligence) is an important determinant of their career success in western societies. But so far, no study has investigated the impact of mental ability on career success in Estonia. The present paper analyzes a longitudinal data-set from Estonia to fill this gap and compares the results with a similar data-set from the United States. The impact of mental ability is compared to the impact of social origin. Success is conceptualized as education, occupation and income of an individual. The analyses demonstrate that both mental ability and social origin have a positive effect on success in Estonia and the United States. However, the impact of mental ability is stronger in the United States and the impact of social origin is, to a lesser extent, stronger in Estonia. It can be concluded that Estonian society is less open and meritocratic than American society.