I would like to check my reasoning for this SC problem

[TommH]

Whoever you are, you should strive to emulate whoever you most admire.

(A) Whoever you are, you should strive to emulate whoever you most admire.
(B) Whoever you are, you should strive to emulate whomever you most admire.
(C) Whomever you are, you should strive to emulate whoever you most admire.
(D) You should strive to emulate those people you most admire.
(E) Whoever you are, you should strive to emulate those whom you most admire.

I got the answer (B) from the use of my ear. It turns out I was correct but I can't seem to find a reason as to why this is so.

(C) - I know that the use of 'Whomever you are' is incorrect so I crossed this one off
(D) - the use of 'those' is incorrect and it should be 'the people...'
(E) - 'whom' makes it sound awkward and so I crossed it off. The use of 'who' would make more sense.

I was left with (A) and (B). I crossed (A) off as the second 'whoever' made the sentence more awkward than the use of 'whomever'.

Could someone please shed some light as to why (B) is the correct answer? Also am I correct with my reasoning?

Many thanks!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Please could you give the source of this problem? In style it seems unlike GMAT Prep problems.

Your use of the word 'awkward' indicates that you've been reading too many (bad) Official Guide explanations. It's simply too vague and subjective to say that something is 'awkward'. Although the word is often used in OG explanations, it's always possible to find a more precise reason why sentences are incorrect.

In the case of A, the rule is quite simple. When we use the word 'who' as an object, we should change it to 'whom'. This rule is often broken in colloquial English (it makes you sound a bit old-fashioned and pedantic to ask 'Whom should I give this cake to?' when you're at a party!). Since, this sentence, the verb 'strive to emulate' is immediately followed by its object, 'whomever' is correct in B.