Is music the key to success? Joanne Lipman asks this question today in a New York Times op ed. When you see a question asked this way, you just know the answer is going to be yes.

If you’re looking for examples, this article has quite a few: former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, reporters Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, and Paula Zahn, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen, film directors Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg. The list goes on. All of these people credit their musical training with providing the skills essential to their success.

Consider the qualities these high achievers say music has sharpened: collaboration, creativity, discipline and the capacity to reconcile conflicting ideas. All are qualities notably absent from public life. Music may not make you a genius, or rich, or even a better person. But it helps train you to think differently, to process different points of view — and most important, to take pleasure in listening.

Lipman is two-thirds right. Music may not make you a genius or rich. But coming to understand an important art form, learning to discern and appreciate beauty, developing analytical skills, and instilling discipline are bound to make you a better person in some non-trivial way.

Of course, other rigorous disciplines can teach these skills and convey similar benefits, but music is one of the most efficient and enjoyable educational paths. And as the article demonstrates, the benefits of a music education translate well into other endeavors.