Value is Relative
I worked with a patient in a community home. She had suffered a small stroke that left her with some residual weakness. During her history, she mentioned she'd had physical therapy two years before for a hip replacement. She sang her therapist's praises. In her eyes, he hung the moon. Right up until she began to accomplish feats with this round of physical therapy that she should have already been doing for two years. Turns out her first therapist was more of a schmoozer than a rehabilitator. She went from "stars in her eyes" to wanting to make him see stars. She was angry about the years of function he had robbed from her.
When I arrived on the scene, this patient thought her previous therapist was very valuable. When his true contribution came to light, she considered his value to be nonexistent. Hero to zero. Value is relative. The value of an object or service is directly affected by how much worth a person places on it. It comes down to perspective. My patient ascribed relative value to the therapist's skill. Until she had a measure against which to compare his service, she could not know his therapeutic skill set held little value.
Beyond this relative value is true value. True value is inherent value. True value is always present, but it may not be recognized. In this example, the therapist's true value was in his personality and ability to manipulate, not in his professional expertise. Every person has true value. The question is, do you recognize a person's true value or are you ascribing relative value where true value doesn't exist?