Dylan can be thought of as a serial entrepreneur, the musical equivalent of Steve Jobs of Apple Computer -- each famous in his 20s for unleashing a wave of creativity that spilled across the world, harshly criticized in midcareer for self-indulgent decisions and ultimately reconfirming his relevance.

What are some of the common traits Jobs and Dylan have shared in their careers?

1. If you are going to be a difficult person, be ridiculously talented. Both men became notorious for tales of rude or arrogant behavior. Fortunately, their talents dwarf their eccentricities, and neither has walked on the wrong side of the law.

2. Borrow, then innovate. Dylan and Jobs both innovated after immersing themselves in the best ideas available. Dylan soaked in a wide variety of traditional folk music, R&B and poetry, while Jobs' team designed the Macintosh based on the pioneering work of scientists at Xerox's Palo Alto, Calif., research labs, which Xerox hesitated to bring to a wider market.

3. Ignore small minds when you are on to something big. Jobs ignored the conventional industry wisdom that there was no market for personal computers. He first created a consumer PC industry, and then brought the amazing technologies trapped in the labs at Xerox (the graphical user interface and mouse, for example) to enthusiastic buyers.

In the mid-1960s, Dylan infuriated his acoustic folk music fan base by playing electronically amplified guitar, with a rock 'n' roll "bar band" backing him up. On his album "Live 1966 -- The Royal Albert Hall," Dylan plays his folk compositions as brilliant, raucous rock, while reactionary fans can be heard screaming, "Judas!" from the audience.

Though Dylan first became famous in the intensely political folk scene, and performed on numerous occasions for the civil rights movement, he soon rejected any overt political involvement, or even pronouncements, to pursue his own idiosyncratic interests.

4. Don't be afraid to reinvent yourself. As Dylan wrote, "He not busy being born is busy dying." The careers of both men are a series of risks attempted, with results varying from outrageous success to interesting cul-de-sacs.

Jobs' successes included founding Apple Computer (with Steve Wozniak); risking the company on the advanced Macintosh workstation; buying Pixar, the computer animation studio that used supercomputers to revolutionize movie cartoons; and most recently, changing the music business, through the iPod and iTunes. Less successful (but highly influential to the future of computing) was Next Computer, an advanced Unix workstation vendor, and Apple's Newton, a revolutionary handheld computer with unreliable handwriting recognition.

Dylan popularized the concept of the singer-songwriter who wrote and performed his own songs and then fused electric R&B and folk into "hard rock." He also released albums of country, traditional and religious music. Dylan is ultimately best understood as an old-fashioned "bard." A century or two ago, in an era without the technology to record music, he might have been famous as a poet, like Walt Whitman.

5. Marketing matters. Both men possess the ability to create a halo effect around their work. Jobs is generally considered the greatest marketer in the history of computing, for first creating a consumer PC market, then the Cult of Macintosh, now iTunes. He has spent the past 30 years proselytizing the "next great thing" in computers and its impact on society, and has been right more often than he has been wrong.

But Dylan is in a league of his own when it comes to creating a mystique about himself and his music. An entire generation sought to find wisdom in his cryptic lyrics. (He insisted, pokerfaced, that they had no special meaning at all.) In his recent autobiography, he continues to spin his legend while querulously questioning why his fans gave special attention to his thoughts and activities.

6. Surround yourself with great people. Jobs surrounded himself with world-class technologists at Apple, Next and Pixar. He also aggressively pursued (and later banished) John Sculley, a senior Pepsi executive hired to manage Apple's rapid growth.

Dylan pursued the company of great musicians throughout his career. His 1960s backup group, the Band, achieved greatness independently in the 1970s. Later, Dylan toured with the Grateful Dead, stellar musicians with their own fan base, who might have intimidated many stars.

7. Persevere by doing what you love. By the 1980s, Dylan seemed to be a has-been, singing in concert in a voice so distorted as to be a caricature of himself. But he gained respect for his marathon touring, year after year, and his immersion in every sort of musical Americana.

In the 1990s, Jobs, too, seemed to have become less relevant to the future of computing, as the Mac evolved into a self-referential niche market. But the success of Pixar in animation and the wild success of the iPod have shown him to be more than just a one-trick pony.