But it's still reversed - it's as if you said "the successful tend to become those who persevere". Are you perhaps translating the grammar from another language?
This is a popular quote from Battlestar Galactica:
Commander William Adama: Yeah, but I'm not going to be your policeman. There's a reason why you separate military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
Wait, don't you mean that "the people become the enemies of the state"? Or did I miss some jab at immigrants?