A Good Reputation is Hard to Overcome?

I just read a comic (Zits) that said: "A good reputation is hard to overcome." Which is false. It is easy to destroy a good reputation in our society, all you have to do is make a mistake. That's all. Reputation gone. What is difficult, if not impossible without relocation, is to repair you reputation after said mistake.

Least, that's how it seems to me most of the time.