Bengaluru: Recently, the city witnessed close to 300 people gathering for a workshop titled “Financial Freedom and its relevance in Manifesting Our Potential”, conducted by the Inside-Out Foundation.
According to the NGO, it is the seventh successful batch of their Level 1 workshop. The participants were from diverse backgrounds and were made to understand the concept of financial freedom through easy examples from day-to-day life and roleplays.
The Inside-Out Foundation, a year-old NGO, was born out of the vision of Ranganathan and Meena Krishnamurthy to build a wealthy and prosperous India by seeking to maximise the potential of every individual and to support the government in its various endeavours.
“Our vision is aligned with Dr Abdul Kalam's vision of developed India by 2020 and our vision is to build a wealthy India with the sole purpose that one cannot build a nation if one is not financially strong and independent themselves,” explains Ranganathan, who adds that their workshops have already reached out to more than thousand people from the age group of 9 to 72 years.
“We teach people to make financially-sound investment decisions and try to change the mindset related to money. In India, there is a tremendous temptation to spend and many people are living off credit cards. Hence we try to change that mindset," he says.
“All the activities are done free of charge,” says Ranganathan. The basic premise of the NGO works on asking questions based on not just making money, but deeper questions on how to live in a zone that gives one immense satisfaction along with making socially-conscious and financially-solid decisions. “It is not just about money alone, but we try to connect the other dots, such as purpose, passion and potential to make it holistic. Excel tools demonstrate the practical application,” he says, stressing that the workshops can be attended by anyone from any age group and people are not charged.
“One might think that the workshops are about making people money hungry, but that is not the case. We focus on an individual’s growth and promote the principles of organic living in a very healthy and ethical environment,” he says. The foundation, with its deep domain knowledge, conducts workshops on topics including organic living and manifesting one’s potential.
Also, the duo try to help people come together to assist government initiatives. “Like with the Digital India campaign, we went to local vendors and shops and tried to educate them about going digital and also open a PayTM account. Then the Swachh Bharat initiative got us to visit homes and teach people about cleanliness and going chemically free in our homes," he explains.
