Remember when Jennifer Hudson got kicked off American Idol?

I do. I thought about that last night when she was singing on the Grammys, doing such a beautiful job of paying tribute to Whitney Houston.

The night that Jennifer got dropped from American Idol it certainly seemed like the end of the road for her as far as her chances of becoming a well-known artist in the music business. My feeling, in all truth, was that no one had really ever expected her to win, and it didn’t seem to come as a big surprise that she hadn’t been voted through. From the start, she didn’t seem to have been “cast” in the leading role.

It’s pretty common on American reality tv for every dropped contestant to say, “You haven’t heard the last of me!” Jennifer Hudson has had what must be the exquisite pleasure of actually watching that come to pass.

I don’t know what it was in her personality or character that made it possible for her to absorb the AI rejection and come back in spite of it. I don’t know how she translated that “end” into a rebirth that has made her one of the more successful Idol alumni. For sure it has made her THE most successful one who didn’t win the show.

Several things are clear: She hung in there. She didn’t believe what her critics said about her. She refused to quit. She worked hard. She took advantage of every opportunity.

I’m so glad she stuck with it. If she hadn’t, we wouldn’t have seen and heard her at the Grammys… classy, beautiful, composed, gifted.

Every songwriter knows what it’s like to have that kind of rejection. We deal with it non-stop. There is always so much more rejection than there is acceptance. There are always more people ready to tell you that you can’t make it, than there are those who say you can.

Jennifer Hudson should give us all hope. And encouragement. And maybe even a swift kick in the seat to remind us that this isn’t supposed to be easy. So the question becomes, is it worth it?