There’s a great article in last Sunday’s New York Times which asks the question “what is it about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in other fields?” and looks for answers to over-achievers in areas as diverse as finance, tech, and journalism.
Frequent readers may remember my post on how music training improves your brain – by developing memory, focus, perception, coordination and hearing. The people interviewed in this article provide personal testaments to these.
“There’s nothing like music to teach you that eventually if you work hard enough, it does get better. You see the results,” says Chuck Todd, NBC’s chief White House correspondent. “I’ve always believed the reason I’ve gotten ahead is by outworking other people,” he says. It’s a skill learned by “playing that solo one more time, working on that one little section one more time.”
Bruce Kovner, the founder of the hedge fund Caxton Associates, finds his investing strategy informed by his piano playing, since both “relate to pattern recognition.”
Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen says music “reinforces your confidence in the ability to create.” In both music and tech he says, “something is pushing you to look beyond what currently exists and express yourself in a new way.”
Others cited learning to collaborate, and focusing one’s passion to dig deep, as skills honed by music training that have helped them succeed in other areas of life.