I'm not at all clear on what you're looking for. You want examples of people who are successful by "working smart and not hard" (what does that mean?) and then

I'm not at all clear on what you're looking for. You want examples of people who are successful by "working smart and not hard" (what does that mean?) and then as an example, you suggest a statistician but qualify that by saying "This is a bad example because it requires being really smart". Aren't the people who work smart going to be smart, almost by definition? If you rule out smart people, then it seems like you've eliminated your possible pool of subjects.