I live in Columbus, Ohio, and for me to endorse the world is indeed flat, well, I'm pretty much taking my life into my own hands. The replica of the Santa Maria in downtown Columbus may spring a leak at the mere thought of a flat world. Bottom line, Thomas L. Friedman's The World is Flat is a worthwhile read. Some parts are dry and uninteresting, but the book, as a whole, merits your reading time.

The focus of this article pertains to one specific section of the tome. You may have previously read or heard Bill Gates' comments on how the "ovarian lottery" has changed -- as has the relationship between geography and talent. Quoting Gates from the book, "thirty years ago, if you had a choice between being born a genius on the outskirts of Bombay or Shanghai or being born an average person on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie, you would take Poughkeepsie, because your chances of thriving and living a decent life there, even with average talent, were much greater. But as the world has gone flat, and so many people can now plug and play from anywhere, natural talent has started to trump geography. Now, I would rather be a genius born in China than an average guy in Poughkeepsie."

This is the essence of how our world has changed -- and continues to change. We not only have to think about where the Mumbai's and Beijing's of tomorrow will be, but how do these wide sweeping changes in how business is done on a global level, apply to being a CPA in Topeka, Tucson or Tallahassee? We can all speculate, but no one really knows. Like someone once said, "The one constant is change." In the big hair days of the 80's did anyone really think that sending tax work overseas to desktop computers via cables at the bottom of the ocean would be occurring in 2006 (and years earlier)? Probably not. Well, maybe Bill Gates did.

Whether you're a ladder-climbing executive at a big city top ten firm or a sole practitioner in the countryside, we've all got to keep an eye on how the world is evolving (or devolving, depending on your viewpoint). I believe Thomas Friedman is right -- the world is flat. The question is, "How do we create opportunities out of what is occurring around us?" Let's chat about it on The Amazing AccountingWEBlog, I want to know what you're thinking. You may even post comments and questions anonymously if you so choose.

Now, I'm headed downtown to fix the Santa Maria ....

For your convenience, The World is Flat is available here: http://www.accountingweb.com/book/site.html

Written by Rob Nance, Publisher, AccountingWEB.com RNance@AccountingWEB.com