Just one mistake....

Remember this guy?

Yep that is Michael Phelps, 8 time gold medalist during the 2008 Bejing Olympics. The most decorated olympic athlete of all time. A man with amazing willpower, drive, determination......

who is now banished from the sport of swimming for a picture of him with a marijuana bong.

All it takes is one little mistake...

I am sure that the people at the party were probably all friends of his. I am sure they were having fun and he never intended for anything bad to happen. I am sure he probably never thought in a million years that the person who was snapping camera phone pics would ever let a picture of him see the light of day. But it happened, and the picture showed up in a newspaper.

All it takes is one little mistake...

Now I am sure Michael is a great guy and he will survive this. But I am sure there are MP posters coming down in bedrooms across America since this has happened. While Mom and Dad where watching the olympics pointed out the all american boy with his mom and sisters whooping it up in the stands cheering him onto victory pointed out to their own kids, see you can do anything if you set your mind to it. You might not be an Olympic athlete, but if you work hard and apply yourself, you can achieve great things. Do you think Mom and Dad are telling little Johnny to make MP his hero today?

All it takes is one little mistake...

MP had endorsement deals from lots of companies. This is a young man who was making 7 figures (that over a million dollars to the unknowing) to be MP. Now some of the endorsers are sticking with the young man, because of contract obligations or other situations I am not sure, but I know that a few are pulling the plug on him because of this situation. You will not be seeing MP on the Frosted Flakes anymore, Kellogs has dumped him. I am sure his agent's phone is not ringing as much as it used to. I am sure others will follow suit when his contract expires they won't renew costing him millions of dollars of income and still others will dump him quietly when the fuss dies down.

All it takes is one little mistake...

I guess what I am saying is, it is what it is. A mistake made by a young man who will pay (literally) for the rest of his life for it. One little mistake that will change his life considerably.

So be on your guard, be viligent as one mistake can cost you so much more than you bargained for.