Steve Jobs was born 1955, died 2011. The difference between these numbers is 56 years. But the length of a live is not the number of years, it is what you do in these years. The number of years was only 56, but Steve Jobs' live was longer than that of anyone I know.
Here is a list of things that I think each deserved him a place in history. Each on its own not the front place, but the sum is incredible:
1. Apple ][ computer. One of the first computers that could be bought and set up at home by any ordinary person; and of those computers the one that sold most from 1977 to the early 1990's.
2. The mouse and graphical user interface brought to a large audience with the Lisa computer and the first Macintosh.
3a. Introducing the 3.5" floppy disk to a large audience in 1984.
4. Introducing the world to Desktop Publishing with the first laser printer under $10,000.
5. Creating NextStep - the software that was used to create the first internet browser.
6. Running Pixar, which has more films in any list of "best animated movies" than even Disney.
3b. Removing the 3.5" floppy disk in 1997.
7. Introducing the first computer that actually _used_ USB.
8. Introducing the first computer with a DVD writer.
9. From 1997, turning Apple into the most influential and most profitable computer maker.
10. Revolutionizing the way we listen to music with the first commercially successful digital music player, the iPod. And selling over 300 million in ten years, more than Sony Walkmen sold in 30 years.
11. Revolutionizing the way we buy music, against the bitter resistance of the music industry.
12. Revolutionizing the smart phone market.
13. Creating a totally new market, the tablet computer.
14. Turning Apple into the company with the highest market capitalization.
Doing all that takes a very, very long life. If you are just counting the years, you are counting it wrong.
My condolences to his family and friends.
