There are tons of successful stories. How about Obama, Oprah, FDR, MLK, Clinton, Truman, Eddison.
As for jealous, that is part of human nature. You will never avoid it. If Obama is afraid that people will assasinate him as they did it to MLK, he will never be the 44th president of US.
If FDR settled with a rich man's country club life after being crippled, he will never stand up again and tell Americans "The only thing to fear is fear itself"