How to Find Your "Blue Vase": Grit, Resourcefulness, and Lessons from The Go-Getter

What separates someone who simply does a job from someone who can be trusted with almost any challenge?

The Blue Vase represents the difficult goals we continue pursuing despite obstacles.

In the workplace, technical knowledge matters. Experience matters. Qualifications matter. But there is another quality that can make an extraordinary difference: initiative.

A fascinating example comes from Peter B. Kyne's 1921 business classic, The Go-Getter. At the heart of the story is Bill Peck, a World War I veteran who refuses to allow difficult circumstances to define what he can accomplish.

His journey, particularly his unforgettable search for a mysterious blue vase, offers lessons that still resonate with modern careers, entrepreneurship, leadership, and professional life.

The central idea: A go-getter does not simply ask, "Can this be done?" They ask, "What can I do next to make it happen?"

1. Meet Bill Peck: The Proactive Professional

Bill Peck returns from World War I as an amputee. He walks with a limp and has lost his left forearm, but the story does not portray these circumstances as the end of his professional ambitions.

Instead, Peck approaches the Ricks Logging & Lumbering Company and presents himself directly to its founder, Cappy Ricks.

Rather than asking for sympathy, Peck wants an opportunity to prove himself. That distinction becomes important throughout the story.

Bill Peck's determination becomes the defining quality of his character.

The Challenge

Peck is given a difficult sales assignment involving slow-moving timber that other salesmen have struggled to sell.

His Response

Instead of treating the assignment as a reason to complain, he searches for creative ways to solve the sales problem.

The Lesson

Initiative becomes visible when circumstances are inconvenient, not when everything is already easy.

This is the first important distinction between simply completing assigned work and demonstrating ownership. A person with ownership focuses on the desired outcome and actively searches for ways to reach it.

2. The Ultimate Test: The Hunt for the Blue Vase

Peck's real test comes when Cappy Ricks gives him an unusual assignment: find and deliver a particular antique vase.

The task sounds simple until Peck discovers that almost everything that could go wrong does go wrong.

The mysterious blue vase becomes a symbol of persistence, initiative, and resourcefulness.

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The Blue Vase Assignment

Find a particular antique vase, locate the right person, overcome every obstacle, and get the assignment completed.

"A Cloisonne vase, old Dutch blue, or Delft, with some Oriental funny-business on it... birds and flowers on it. It's about a foot tall and four inches in diameter and sets on a teak-wood stand."

— Peter B. Kyne, The Go-Getter

When Everything Goes Wrong

Peck's assignment quickly becomes a chain of obstacles.

①

The shops are closed.
It is Sunday afternoon, making the search considerably more difficult.

②

The dealer cannot immediately be found.
Peck has to search for information rather than simply waiting for someone to respond.

③

Even the name creates another obstacle.
Peck follows different variations of the dealer's name while trying to locate him.

④

The search becomes indirect.
Information has to be gathered through other people and unexpected connections.

⑤

The final contact is difficult.
Even after locating the right person, Peck still has to persuade him to help.

What makes the episode memorable is not simply that Peck eventually gets closer to the vase. It is the way he responds to every new obstacle.

One closed door → Find another door.
One failed lead → Find another lead.
One obstacle → Find another solution.

3. What Does the Blue Vase Really Represent?

The blue vase is more than an object in the story. It can be viewed as a useful metaphor for the difficult assignments we encounter in professional life.

Sometimes the "blue vase" is a difficult client. Sometimes it is a project with an unrealistic deadline. It could be learning a completely unfamiliar skill, solving a problem nobody else wants to handle, or taking responsibility when there is no obvious solution.

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The Goal

Know what needs to be accomplished.

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The Obstacles

Expect delays, uncertainty and setbacks.

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The Response

Look for another practical route forward.

4. Three Career Lessons from Bill Peck

① Replace "I Can't" with "What Can I Try?"

There is an important difference between recognizing a genuine limitation and immediately assuming that something cannot be done.

A proactive professional first investigates the available options. They ask questions, gather information, seek help where appropriate and experiment with different approaches.

Instead of: "This won't work."
Ask: "What other approach could work?"

② Develop Relentless Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness is not about knowing every answer. It is about knowing how to search for an answer when you do not have one.

Peck demonstrates this repeatedly. When one source of information fails, he searches elsewhere. When one person cannot help, he looks for another. When the obvious route disappears, he explores an unconventional one.

In modern workplaces, this same quality can appear in many forms:

• Researching a problem independently.
• Learning a new tool instead of avoiding the task.
• Asking the right person for information.
• Finding alternative ways to complete a process.
• Breaking a large problem into smaller, manageable steps.

③ Take Ownership of the Outcome

There is a difference between completing an assigned activity and taking responsibility for the result.

If a person says, "I sent the email, so my work is finished," they are focusing on the activity. Someone focused on the outcome asks whether the problem has actually been solved.

Activity mindset: "I did what I was told."

Ownership mindset: "I took responsibility for getting the required result."

5. The "Go-Getter" Mindset in Modern Work

Although The Go-Getter was published more than a century ago, the underlying workplace challenge is surprisingly familiar.

Organizations still need people who can work through ambiguity, communicate with others, solve unexpected problems and keep moving when the first plan fails.

Situation	Passive Response	Proactive Response
You don't know how to do something.	Wait for instructions.	Research and ask targeted questions.
The first solution fails.	Stop.	Try another approach.
A deadline is tight.	Focus on why it is difficult.	Prioritize and find the fastest workable route.
A problem belongs to nobody clearly.	Wait for someone else.	Clarify responsibility and help move it forward.

A Necessary Balance

Being proactive does not mean ignoring rules, safety, ethics, teamwork or reasonable limits. Resourcefulness works best when combined with good judgment. The goal is not to "do anything at any cost." The goal is to keep looking for responsible ways to solve the problem.

Every career has its own difficult assignments, unexpected obstacles and moments that require initiative.

Final Thoughts: What Is Your Blue Vase?

Most careers eventually present us with a "blue vase" assignment.

It may arrive as a difficult project, an unfamiliar responsibility, a demanding client, a complicated examination, a new business idea or a problem that appears to have no obvious solution.

The lesson from Bill Peck is not that every obstacle can be magically removed. Rather, it is that the first obstacle does not necessarily have to be the final answer.

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"When the obvious path disappears, look for another path."

Your "blue vase" may be difficult to find, but the search itself can teach you how resourceful you really are.

A Question to Take With You

What is the "blue vase" in your life right now, and what is one thing you can do today to move closer to it?

Career Growth Leadership Grit Resourcefulness The Go-Getter