Idol is a soulless machine.
If you REALLY want to be a REAL ARTIST, Idol will not nurture that dream. It's up to you, there is no "easy" shortcut to fame & fortune.
I know Kelly Clarkson has done well, but for every success story there are numerous failures. For example, a former Australian Idol, Casey Donovan, has been dropped by Sony because she lost them in excess of $12,000,000. She was only 16 when she won Idol, and now she has this black cloud over her head and people think of her as a flop, a real joke.