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That’s the business definition of the term. Thirty years ago – before the term or the concept was as widely-used – I encountered my first and most lasting experience with the concept of "relative value."

In 1976 I was the director of central processing and distribution at Baptist Hospital of Miami. My boss was a man named Brian Edward Keeley. Brian Keeley is a bright and engaging guy. Today he is the CEO of Baptist Health System of South Florida. Over the years he has built a sleepy 365-bed hospital into one of the finest hospital systems anywhere.

Brian was a great guy to work for. He was energetic and upbeat. You couldn’t be around him for any period of time without knowing that someday he would be the leader of a prestigious organization. As a boss, he gave you a lot of freedom. Give him a good idea and the facts to support what you wanted to do, and there was nothing to get in your way. He was the kind of person that was confident enough about his identity that you could challenge his ideas without undermining his authority or threatening his ego.

He was also a tennis player and a pretty damned good one. He knew that I also played tennis, and one day he came to me and proposed that we play. We went out and played and as I recall, we were pretty even. My serve was stronger, but his all-around game was better. After our first match I must have made the cut because he suggested that we play every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at lunch.

So we started playing regularly. Most of the time we played at Continental Park – which was just a mile from the hospital. They had hard courts there, and on that surface I could play him evenly. Other times we played at his club – Saga Bay. There they had clay courts, and he would get me into really long points with rallies of 10-15 hits. I was dead meat when we played there, and I’d always come back to work beaten badly and badly upset.

One day after our match we were walking back into the hospital and Brian said to me, "Freddie, I really need a vacation."

"Why don’t you take one," I asked.

"Because there are just so many things going on that I can’t afford to go away."

"That’s b******t, Brian," I replied. "I’ll tell you what. Let’s make a bet. You take two weeks off. We won’t replace you and no one will do your work. I’ll pick someone to take two weeks off and we won’t replace that person, either. I guarantee you that the person I choose will be missed a h*****a lot more than you."

Brian looked at me with this look that was a combination of (1) skepticism, (2) hurt and (3) incredulity. "Who would you pick," he asked.

"Him," I said and pointed to a young man named Paul Topper. Paul was afflicted with a mild form of cerebral palsy. He worked in environmental services; his job was to take out the trash. "I guarantee you Paul Topper would be missed more than you, dude."

At that point Brian’s face turned red with anger. He instructed me to do some rather unpleasant things with my suggestion and stormed off in the direction of his office. I laughed, shook my head, and returned to mine.

About an hour later, my phone rang. It was Brian. "You know what I just did," he asked.

"Made out the paperwork to fire me," I responded.

"Nope. I just scheduled my vacation. I just called to thank you for two things. First, I really did need to take a vacation. Second, I needed to hear what you said. You really ticked me off when you said it. I couldn’t believe that you thought Paul Topper was more important to Baptist than I was. Then I reflected on what you said, and you’re right! If no one did Paul’s work for two weeks the place would be a mess! So as far as the visible effect of our day-to-day efforts, Paul Topper is a h*****a lot more important to this organization than I am."

"That’s right, Brian," I said. "I knew your parents didn’t waste their money when they sent you to GWU."

Three years ago I stopped by Baptist and among scores of old friends who still work there, I especially looked for two people of high relative value. Brian Keely is now the CEO of one of this country’s finest healthcare organizations.

And Paul Topper is still taking out the trash…

Both are indispensable to the organization’s success.