About Mike

A Life of Learning, Teaching, and Exploration

I’m Mike Creed, the founder of Sage Blueprints.

I was born and raised in South Africa but left more than 20 years ago and have spent much of my adult life living and working abroad.

Over the years, I have worked in different parts of the Middle East and Asia and have traveled to around 40 countries.

That international experience has taught me the value of preparation, adaptability, careful research, and knowing which details really matter when circumstances change.

Education and Professional Background

My academic background is a BCom degree from Rhodes University in South Africa, with majors in Accounting, Management, and Information Systems, the latter with distinction.

I later moved into education and obtained the Cambridge CELTA professional teaching credential, followed by 12 specialist TESOL qualifications and more than 30 additional professional-development certifications across a range of fields.

I spent 18 years teaching English at school, university, and adult levels overseas.

Teaching reinforced something that has stayed with me throughout my life: merely knowing something is not enough. The real skill lies in being able to understand it, organize it, explain it clearly, and make it useful to someone else.

I am also a published author, having written and published several books through Amazon KDP.

Preparation, Adaptability, and the Unexpected

Outside work and research, two of my longstanding passions are scuba diving and backgammon.

I progressed through advanced recreational scuba training to PADI Divemaster level. Diving reinforced a principle I apply far beyond the water: good preparation does not eliminate uncertainty, but it gives you a much stronger framework for dealing with it when conditions change.

Backgammon taught me the other side of that lesson. Even the best strategy sometimes has to change when the dice fall differently than expected.

Together, these experiences have reinforced my belief in balancing careful preparation with the ability to adapt when life does not follow the plan.

How I Approach Problems

Over time, I have come to recognize four ways of thinking that consistently shape how I approach problems and decisions.

Research and Synthesis

I gather information from multiple sources, identify what matters, and bring it together into a coherent whole.

Systems Thinking

I look for patterns, relationships, dependencies, and the wider structure behind a problem rather than treating each piece in isolation.

Simplification and Teaching

Years of teaching have trained me to turn complicated information into clear, practical language that people can understand and use.

Long-Term Thinking

I tend to look beyond the immediate question, considering what may change, what could go wrong, and how a decision fits into the bigger picture.

These four habits underpin the way I approach Sage Blueprints:

Research carefully. Understand the system. Simplify what matters. Turn it into something practical.