I don't admire very many things at all about his life--or at least what we think must have been his life.  What I do admire is what he produced.  I guess I'd say it's a matter of appreciating something grand even if its source is less than perfect.

What I admire most about Shakespeare's life was that he was a genuine individual with flaws, hopes, and dreams.  He was the perfect anti-hero: he wrote with a sense of what makes us really human without being on a pedastal himself.  He was a commoner who knew that sex, violence, and moralistic situations would sell to audiences and take them away from the squalid lives he so readily understood.  He was a man wracked in unhappiness but could forsee a hopeful future.  He feared the gods, but he knew how to poke fun at himself.  Lastly, he proved to the masses that he understood the plights of their daily lives, while also making his plays viable to the upper crust.

Truly, Shakespeare was a man of great talent, but first and foremost, his very humaness has made him the beloved author of generations.

Besides admiring Shakespeare's amazing literary creations and the sheer volume and the variety of his work, I've also admired his skill as a playwright working with few physical stage resources. No special effects, no computers, no hydraulic equipment--no electricity! Yet he managed to work around his limitations and create compelling atmosphere on his stage. Night scene? Carry torches. Weather issues? Have people talk about the weather. Want a dagger to float in the air and turn bloody in the process? Write a speech so vivid and spooky and horrifying that the audience can "see" what isn't there!

I've often encountered the story about Shakespeare firing a cannon offstage to add authenticity to a battle scene. (Can't remember which play.) The story goes that it was the cannon ball that set fire to the thatched roof of the Globe Theater, burning it to the ground. Is it true? I'm not sure, but I hope it is. I've always imagined young Will Shakespeare walking through the charred remains of the theater and saying, "Egad!It seemed like such a good idea."

Shakespeare has achieved the amazing feat of standing at the pinnacle of Western literature. As an English major, I treasured my semester-long Shakespeare course and could have gladly taken more, if they had been offered. One of my goals in life is, before I die, to have read every one of Shakespeare's works. He is truly a giant of literature, possibly the greatest writer ever to put pen to parchment.

Concerning your question about Shakespeare's life, I think we should be careful about idealizing his life.  For instance, Shakespeare was very much a business man.  This is in itself neither good nor bad.  He seems to have been a pretty good one.  He invested in property and eventually was able to get his family name crested, if that is the correct term. 

He seems to have been in a bad marriage.  Some say evidence suggests he developed relationships in London and that he may have been bisexual.  He lost a child early in the child's life.  He must have worked painfully long hours.  He was a human the same as any other human. 

Shakespeare worship doesn't add to our understanding of him and his works, it gets in the way of it.  He was a master writer the same way a surgeon can be a master surgeon.