Speeches
Leading Without Losing Yourself: Lessons from Reporting in Washington with McKay Coppins
On March 7, the Southern Virginia University community gathered in the Knight Arena for a University Honor’s forum to hear McKay Coppins, author and staff writer for The Atlantic, speak on upholding principles while pursuing personal ambitions.
“I think if we’re being honest, all of us would admit that we have faced this temptation to compromise our principles in order to get something that we want,” Coppins continued. “So the question becomes, how can we avoid this threat? Is it possible to succeed in the world while remaining true to who we are?”
Coppin shared that a way of maintaining one’s standards while in power is to think about how choices will be remembered by future generations, rather than the context of a next election. He encouraged those in attendance to consider the effect of their actions after they pass on.
“Now, you might not lead the kind of life that will get covered in the next day’s newspapers, or that will end up in history books, but if you have kids, you ensure that a future audience exists that has some interest in the choices you make,” Coppin said. “Make decisions based on how your kids will explain them to their kids, and whether you’ll be proud of those explanations.”
Highlighting a letter Winston Churchill’s wife sent him during World War II that expressed displeasure in Churchill’s recent behavior, Coppin emphasized the importance of maintaining strong relationships and having a “toe holder” in life, or someone who will provide honest and reliable feedback.
“Make sure as you go through life not to dispense with those people who tell you difficult things. They tell you those things because they love you. They care about you,” said Coppins. “Cherish and invest in those relationships because they become more and more valuable as you age.”
In response to a question on feeling disheartened about the turmoil in the world during the Q&A portion of the event, Coppins shared the power of finding and performing small actions that take the world in a better direction.
“Find an institution you think needs to be defended, find an issue or a cause that you really care about, call your congressman, vote volunteer for campaigns, donate your time to your community and church,” said Coppins. “There are 1,000 different options, but the antidote to anxiety and powerlessness is just choosing something to do.”
Coppins covers politics, religion, and national affairs and is the New York Times bestselling author of “Romney: A Reckoning,” and “The Wilderness,” a book on the future of the Republican Party. He has also been a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and has earned the Aldo Beckman Award from the White House Correspondents’ Association and the Wilbur Award for religion reporting.
The event featured a musical performance of Roger’s and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” by the cast of the upcoming theatre performance, and it closed with the traditional singing of “Love One Another.”