Journalists Michelle García and Fernanda Santos share a few things in common. They both have worked for legacy media institutions — the Washington Post and The New York Times, respectively. They have also endured profound losses that led them to search for their authentic selves. In the process, they discovered that there’s no standard roadmap to success. Instead, they learned to define success — or better yet, self-fulfillment — on their own terms.

Santos is now the editorial director at Futuro Media and García is working on a book about the U.S.-Mexico border for Viking Books.