Jodie Foster/Mark Spitz - Lindsay Lohan/ Michael Phelps

Obviously all of the above individuals displayed remarkable talent at a very young age and each of them leveraged and profited from their talents quite well.

Ironically enough, the Disney movie that proved Jodie Foster was a bankable icon post her nomination for an Academy Award as a 12-year-old hooker in the movie,Taxi Driver, was, Freaky Friday, the very same roll that made Lindsay Lohan an icon and a millionaire as well.

For Phelps and Spitz it was Olympia!

Foster and Phelps were raised by single mothers whereas Lohan and Spitz were raised in a nuclear family. (In Lohan's case that last comment may be a bit of a stretch but that is what it says on paper .)

Jodie Foster educated at Yale, Mark Spitz educated at Indiana, both never arrested and both became very successful parents.

Obviously Foster got the memo when she was about 14-years-old that her private life was non-existent. Mark Spitz got the memo too, cashed his million-dollar check post the '72 Olympics; created his own "medals" poster; bought a Ferrari, and moved on to start a family.

Four talented people a generation apart with the same sublime skills yet this current generation struggles with fame, money and other "vices" whereas the previous generation thrived.

This is not a, "my generation is better than yours," post but rather a "second mouse gets the cheese" post. Learn from their mistakes.

I advise younger talent to find the right mentors and be forewarned that these mentors are not sports agents but rather those people around you who are very good at what they do and have been demonstrably successful in what you want to accomplish. These individuals are the type of people who want you to realize every single one of your goals as their sole source of payment. Listen to those people first and grab onto your wallet when the people you are paying offer their opinions.