Exhibit A:

“These steady, guaranteed, market beating returns that have no risk are safe because Madoff wouldn’t risk life in prison running a fraud. Plus, it’s registered with the SEC”

is roughly equivalent to:

“This 350’ drop and metal capsule with no parachute are safe because Branson is here. Plus, I’m on a TV show so I’m sure they have a safety crew.”

These examples show just how much we trust others and how easily we can be persuaded into taking huge, unnecessary risk when a prize is dangled in front of us.

There are people who refused to invest in Madoff while their friends or competitors were getting rich. And there are people who would refuse to press that button. They’re incredibly rare, but that’s what you’re looking for when you want someone making billion dollar decisions that affect tons of jobs/livelihoods.

If you bet alongside Branson 100% of the time, you’d do really well in life. But he wouldn’t gain any value.

But to him, you are a tool that helps him get better. You playing the odds and agreeing with him doesn’t help him. You calling bullshit the 0.01% of the time when he’s dead wrong is what he needs. You’re not his next billion dollar idea. You’re his bankruptcy / financial death safety net. He doesn’t want someone making a prisoner’s dilemma (we’ll sink or swim together) / “no one got fired for choosing IBM” (no one got fired for agreeing with Branson) kind of decision. He wants you to say “Knowing what I know, I can’t go along with this.”

So it’s a very theatrical way of seeing if you have the courage to save him from himself, in a way that makes for a good 10 second TV teaser for non-business folks.