Respect for the person is different from respect for their abilities / achievements. I don't hold out a lot of respect for Branson either (who you cited at the beginning of the thread)
Role model? Absolutely not. As a piece of entertainment to rake in the viewers, it's clearly working.
Plus - my point is that he is by any real measure a very successful man, and the aspirants will quite rightly feel there is am emormoous amount they could learn from him. Personally, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes, because I think he's an arrogant toerag - but I can see why they go for it - and that's completely aside from the publicity they get in the process - I imagine that many of the previous 'candidates' have done pretty well for themselves since...
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