You know what I think it comes down to is guilt vs. self-acceptance. The ones you call "smart guys" who deceive others with their clever wiles are doing it without guilt. Meanwhile, many of the good people berate themselves for even the tiniest imperfection. None of us are perfect, so if we hold ourselves to such an impossible standard we will always feel undeserving. And this, alas, is the heart of it. We get the reward we expect to get!
The way the good person can have a life even better than the life the "smart guys" are having is to accept that they really are a good person doing their best and to feel deserving of good things coming to them without sacrifice. Too often people are taught that being good means to suffer and sacrifice. This teaching must be rejected for what it is, mental conditioning put in place to make working people servants of those in power without complaint.