In this qualitative study, we highlight the stories of a diverse group of 27 women academics who rebuffed many of academia's taken-for-granted pathways and approaches for success. To share their pathways and approaches, we offer a counternarrative composed of 3 themes: challenging linearity, refusing dualism, and rejecting individualism. Given our intersectional analysis, we show that even within a powerful counternarrative, there are differences, that these differences might best be understood in connection with gender, race, and class, and that these differences yield distinct experiences and outcomes among women.