Our world is a startup. Take a break, lean back, zoom out and see the bigger picture.

By 2016 88% of the world’s population will live in emerging markets. 2/3 of global GDP growth will occur in emerging markets, QZ reports. Whatever you do for a living, whatever you study right now  in school, think about those two sentences for a second. Friendly reminder: it’s already 2013 — and emerging markets are no longer emerging.

Now do the following simile. We, the West and the so-called developed countries are the world’s IBMs, Microsofts, Googles. Multinational behemoths. We are rich, we’re doing pretty good but our growth rate is small. For the sake of the argument I set aside the current financial crisis in Europe and the 2008 one from which the US only now recovers from. Or Apple’s plummeting stock.

Emerging markets are the startups of our world. Fueled by huge growth, ready to disrupt the behemoths and their industries. Ready to challenge the status quo. And due to their astonishing growth rate they’ll soon have billions of ‘users’ — 88% of the world’s population by 2016. Daunting.

You know how the game is played. Small eats big.

The world is not what it was 5 years ago. Our contemporary landscape is changing fast — faster than ever. We can’t live our lives, build businesses, innovate, tackle big problems, or even write public policies dictated by ideas of the old world; of obscene restrictions, regulations, irrational and unrealistic world-views, and country-focused outlooks.

If you still aren’t thinking globally by default, then I’m afraid, you’ve lost the game.