Robert W. Bly

Robert W. Bly (born July 21, 1957), also known as Bob Bly, is a writer on the subjects of copywriting, freelance writing, and other marketing/writing subjects.

101 Ways to Make Every Second Count: Time Management Tips and Techniques for More Success With Less Stress (1999)

 * Quality improves with effort according to an exponential curve.


 * Productive people guard their time more heavily than the gold in Fort Knox.


 * Without a deadline, the motivation to do a task is small to nonexistent.


 * You can't literally cram a 25th hour into a 24-hour day. But you can shift activities and priorities so more time is available for essential tasks.


 * In my opinion two is the ideal team. Any more and you're in danger of ending up with a committee that spins its wheels and accomplishes nothing.


 * Be aware that you may not be the best judge of what your employees need to do their jobs effectively. Even if you've done the job yourself, someone else may work best with a different set of tools, or in a different setup, because each person is different.


 * The successful managers know that the best way for their people to learn and grow is through experience and that means taking chances and making errors.


 * One of the greatest satisfactions in life comes from getting things done and knowing you have done them to the best of your ability.


 * Many people boast of going years without a vacation. But this is a sign of trouble — not commitment.

Quotes about Bly

 * I interviewed Robert Bly in 1990. I can remember saying to him, “Now, what about the men’s movement?” And he said, “No, it’s not men’s movement.” And I said, “Well, what will you call it?” “Men’s work, just work with men, that’s all.” And, I really like that. I like that he called it work with men. Mythopoetic is too big a word. It is better to have simpler words.
 * Clarissa Pinkola Estés Interview (2019)


 * Sometimes the only way we learn to hold on to our deeper knowing is because a stranger jumps out. Then we are forced to fight for what we find dear-fight to be serious about what we are about, fight to get past our superficial spiritual motives, which Robert Bly calls "the desire to feel groovy," fight to hold on to the deeper knowledge, fight to finish what we have begun.
 * Clarissa Pinkola Estés Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype (1996)


 * Robert Bly said writing a bad poem before breakfast/every day is a good habit./He did it in honor of his old friend Bill Stafford/(who also did it) after Bill died./The poems were never bad, by the way./They were great./There were a lot of them./You could work on them later, after you ate.
 * Naomi Shihab Nye Voices in the Air (2018)


 * People I read a lot to my son were people like Robert Bly and Lucille Clifton, Frank O’Hara for some reason, Chinese poems, Japanese poems.
 * Naomi Shihab Nye Interview with On Being (2016)