I think the writer just suffers a huge case of imposter syndrome! Most seemingly 'smart' and 'talented' people are just people who know that 'Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard'
I’m pretty sure the entire premise is more than a little facetious, and the author already knows this.
I don’t think it’s facetious, I think it’s inspirational to point out that most of the time it’s just about hard work and doing the jobs nobody else is/wants to be doing.