What a great story and a lesson for life: A lot of success is just luck. Whether it was the Medium managers "turning the viral dial to 11" or just something in your (really great) article that set all the right variables in the Medium algorithm or something else...it happened and I'm very happy for your success.

I've known a lot of content creators, including my wife. She has a video with something like 1.75 million views. Some other videos that (we think) are just as good get a couple of hundred views. Some that we think are just average get thousands.

It is the same in business. I know mediocre people (IMO) who make a shitton of money and amazing people who are just getting along.

I think it is a "Right place, right time" kind of thing and it keeps me humble about my own success.