They may be smarter than you. They may have more money than you. They may come from a different city or a better family. But they can NEVER outwork you. And they can NEVER outprepare you. And they just can't outpractice you. And that's why you'll win.
There's a cultural conviction that any 'artist' must have personal suffering to back up their work, otherwise there's something undeserved and therefore inauthentic about it, perhaps even some sort of cheating.