"If you’re willing to live your life for a short time the way most people won’t, you can live the rest of your life in a way most people can’t"

Only if this was always true. You could also live your life the way most people won't for a LONG time and never get to the point of living it the way others cannot.

Very few people admit that luck is a considerable factor in people's lives and their successes.

How is this obviously made up and devoid of substance l'esprit d'escalier-type story getting upvotes?

This is written like a typical Reddit post. Which is to say, embarrassingly, obviously fake.

Reminds me a bit of a coworker who was here for maybe a month. He was hired into a position to support a particular group. Once he had seen how the group worked, and how they would treat him, he quit.

To be clear, he didn’t ghost us: He talked with his manager, and left the same day, as is his right in a right-to-work state.

He was probably in his early- to mid-30s; he said he had enough saved to last him through a job search, and I didn't doubt him.

Did everybody clap?

Hell yeah