In 1995, when she was 27, Dana Perino met a handsome British man named Peter on a plane flying from Denver to Chicago.
The two talked for two hours straight, and, by the end of the flight, Perino was in love.
In the months that followed, they exchanged romantic letters and hopped between England and Washington, DC, to see each other.
But, Perino was unsure of where things were headed with the man, who was 18 years her senior. She told her friend Kim Wilkerson that she couldn’t quite see how things could work out for them in the long term.
“Stop. Do not pass up the chance to be loved,” Wilkerson told her emphatically.
She was right. Perino, now a Fox News anchor, and Peter McMahon have been happily married for 26 years.
“It was the best advice and led to the chance to build a wonderful life with this crazy Brit,” she writes in “I Wish Someone Had Told Me: The Best Advice For Building A Great Career And A Meaningful Life” (Harper/Fox News Books, out now).
With the new book, Perino is aiming to pay it forward, sharing wisdom from her friends and mentors as well as her own life
“There’s an insatiable demand for advice but a limited supply of the best answers,” Perino told The Post. “I wanted to put together something that I think every reader will benefit from having on their nightstand … it’s a blueprint for a great career right out of college all the way to retirement.”
Her hot take is that young people are too obsessed with work-life balance too early in their careers.
“There are seasons in your life when you are going to work 18-hour days, and if you work hard in your twenties, you’re more likely to have a better work-life balance later on,” she told The Post.
Perino said she’s been lucky to be counseled by highly successful, high-powered people over the years.
“I’ve gotten great advice along the way from a president, cabinet secretaries, journalists and commentators, officers in the military, members of Congress, and a wonderful peer group of professional men and women with similar career challenges,” said Perino, who served as George W. Bush’s Press Secretary from 2007 to 2009.
In the book, a number of big names — including “America’s Newsroom” co-host Bill Hemmer, country singer Dierks Bentley, Tunnel to Towers CEO Frank Siller, and fellow Fox News stars Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters and Martha MacCallum share their knowledge.
Her favorite nuggets include Greg Gutfeld’s insight that one shouldn’t worry so much about what they’re going to do at a job, but who they’re going to work with, and Bret Baier’s wish that somebody had told him not to eat so many carbs after 40.
She also loves that her good friend, communications executive Mora Neilson, advises readers to laugh about your life.
“Just look around and say this is hysterical,” Neilson tells her in the book. “[And ask] ‘How did this happen?’”
The tome touches on various stages of life and career, including deciding what industry to pursue, landing a first job, nailing initial impressions, leveling up professionally and figuring out what really matters in the end.
“This book is broadly based for both genders and people of all ages,” Perino said. “I hope it’s something they can read one time and then, if they’re thinking about their next promotion or maybe they’re wanting to become a parent or thinking about retirement, they can say, ‘Let me go back and see what Dana and her friends and colleagues said.’”
Her Fox News co-workers provide some particularly sharp insights.
“Ask more questions than you make statements,” Bill Hemmer writes in the book. “Most people like to hear themselves talk. If you can listen and hear them, they are more likely to listen to you when it’s important to you.”
Jessica Turlov, co-host of “The Five,” writes that “If it won’t matter five years from now, don’t worry about it today.”
Martha MacCallum, the anchor/executive editor of “The Story,” offers up advice for working parents, writing, “Your kids always come first, but it is also important for them to understand that you take your work seriously.”
Of all her friends and mentors, Perino said that George W. Bush has given her the best advice and “continues to be a wonderful influence” on her life.
Most critically, he told her to live by consistent morals.
“He often talked about how living based on a set of principles made decision-making much easier,” she writes in the book. “If you live by a moral code, then you won’t find yourself in compromising situations … You can hold your head high, even if the decision you make is unpopular.”
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