CNN anchor Abby Phillip is offering a sobering reality check to young women chasing success: hard work, she says, isn’t always enough.
In a candid conversation on the podcast of the women’s workwear brand Argent, Phillip reflected on her early career and how she once believed that diligence and talent alone would pave the way to success — a belief she now calls a “myth.”
“I thought to myself, okay, I just worked really hard in high school, and I worked really hard in college, and I graduated, and I got to this point,” Phillip said. “And then I was like, well, I’m just going to work really hard at this job. And I did — but it wasn’t enough.”
Her comments have sparked wide discussion online, particularly among young women and professionals of color, who see their own experiences reflected in her words.
The Myth of Meritocracy
Phillip, now one of the most prominent journalists in American political media, says her understanding of career growth has evolved with experience. Beyond performance and perseverance, she notes, relationships and visibility often play an even greater role in success.
“It is those relationships — and those relationships can be extremely powerful for you if you know how to use them,” she explained. “So many young women, and especially young women of color, not only do they not have access to those relationships, but they don’t even know that’s how the game is played.”
Her blunt assessment — “we have been sold a lie, which is that it’s a meritocracy and it’s all about hard work” — cuts to the heart of a workplace truth many learn the hard way. In most professional arenas, advancement often depends as much on who you know as what you can do.
Why It Resonates
Phillip’s message seems to be gaining traction online because it challenges one of the most enduring and comforting ideas in American culture — that merit alone determines success. For many women, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, that promise hasn’t matched reality.
Her comments echo what labor economists and sociologists have long found: networking, sponsorship, and perception often shape career outcomes as much as ability.
A Harvard Business Review study, for instance, has shown that women receive less access to influential mentors and fewer opportunities for informal networking — barriers that quietly but powerfully affect advancement.
Phillip’s willingness to speak openly about these dynamics reflects a broader cultural shift: successful women telling the truth about how success actually works.
Lessons in Power and Connection
Abby Phillip’s reflections are more than career advice — they’re a call for young professionals to understand power dynamics early.
The idea that merit alone governs advancement has always been comforting, but it also obscures the systemic and social forces that determine who gets noticed, promoted, or invited into the room. By pulling back the curtain, Phillip is helping a new generation navigate workplaces more strategically — and perhaps, more honestly.
Her message isn’t cynical; it’s empowering. If hard work isn’t always enough, then learning to build authentic relationships, find mentors, and understand influence becomes part of the real work.
Phillip’s advice may be the most practical and humane truth young women can hear.
