Sahil Vora: How Squash Championship Shaped His Leadership at SILA
Sahil Vora, National Squash Champion in the Over 35 division, US National Squash Championship winner multiple times, and the Captain of the Trinity College Men’s Squash Team, was developing a winning attitude in court well before he developed SILA to one of the most respected real estate business services platforms in India. This competitive advantage that Sahil had developed using squash turned out to be his leadership style at SILA.
Who Is Sahil Vora?
Sahil Vora is a founder of SILA Group, an Indian real estate and business services platform. He also competes in squash and his sporting discipline has had an impact on his leadership style.
How Squash Shaped Sahil Vora’s Mindset
Squash is a sport which demands not just physical prowess but also a profound psychological devotion, and puts to the test speed, stamina, split-second calls, and precision in the hurly of the competition. The championship pedigree that had developed Sahil helped him to remain calm when under the pressure of a situation, this was very important when Sahil assisted SILA to become a nationally-based company. His court experience enabled him to be resilient, flexible, and capable of coping with stress, which helped him deal with the development of SILA.
Discipline and Ownership: Core Principles for Sahil at SILA
In the case of Sahil discipline is the key to success, whether it is sport or business. Squash, a single player sport, puts all the blame on the player. Nobody can train, perform or even think on your behalf. This individual responsibility influenced Sahil Vora in his management philosophy at SILA.
He brought this mindset into the organisation by building systems that emphasise:
- Responsibility at every level
- Clear roles and expectations
- No excuses when it comes to execution
As Sahil explains:
“Squash demands total presence. A wandering mind loses the point—in business, it loses everything.”
This linkage between being on the court and being in business is the main focus of Sahil as a leader of SILA.
This ideology became the cornerstone of the culture of SILA’s operations. All components of the firm including the ground-level employees to the senior management were urged to own their responsibilities completely. This model has made the company successful and scalable up to date.
Continuous Improvement: From Squash Court to SILA’s Boardroom
The other characteristic of squash is endless improvement and this was the same characteristic that Sahil introduced to the SILA’s culture. Sahil promotes constant feedback and refinement as much as squash players do in their games, which is why SILA is similar. This insatiable quest to achieve improved systems, training, and operations processes assisted SILA in becoming a niche service provider into a multi-vertical giant, whose operations have extended to various domains with more efficiency and effectiveness.
- Continuous feedback
- Process refinement
- Smarter training
- Operational improvements
According to his words, improvement is the ability to learn in each and every experience, and this is the attitude that SILA kept on improving its method:
“Squash teaches you to adjust and improve continuously. Every match, every game, there’s always something to learn. That’s how we grew SILA—from a small idea to a national leader.”
Resilience defines it: in squash, when you lose a point, then you restart and struggle even more. This mentality has been translated to his leadership style by Sahil who has helped SILA overcome the challenges of expanding into new sectors, market uncertainties and national expansion challenges. To Sahil, failure is a lesson and not a loss.
“Sports teach resets. One error doesn’t doom the next point—or one bad day, your business.”
SILA, Sahil Vora, and Youth Squash Development
Sahil does not just take squash seriously as his achievements. SILA sponsors multiple squash programs, particularly among the children, SILA helps in sparking discipline, passion and love of the game among the young players within the country. This sponsorship program is part of the Sahil philosophy of youth empowerment by sports where it is not always about winning and losing, but about the ability to build life skills that are not based on the courts.
SILA contributes to youth squash programs to enable young athletes to share the same values which enabled Sahil to become a champion: discipline, resilience, and teamwork. These programs push children to be dedicated to their aspirations, work hard, and continue to improve, which are also the pillars of culture at SILA. These initiatives will enable Sahil to raise the future generation of leaders who will be able to use the lessons of squash in many spheres of life and business.
Besides sponsoring the future generation of squash players, SILA’s sponsorships also promote the sport’s growth across the country where more young people can have a chance to play. This ambition to build future talent is one of the main parts of the vision of Sahil of SILA as not only the business but also as the entity concerned with holistic development, both professional and personal.
Squash, Leadership, and SILA’s Bigger Story
The story of SILA is in actual sense the story of the intersection of sports, discipline, and leadership. Sahil has contributed, together with his co-founder Rushabh Vora, to the establishment of SILA based on the following foundations:
- Focus
- Resilience
- Discipline
- Integrity
From Rushabh’s operational backbone and Sahil’s cricket grit to squash mastery, SILA thrives on focus, resilience, and continuous evolution. It is a SILA story, which is about turning on its heels, working hard, disciplining, and being integrity-first in all stages of development.
The key to SILA’s success has been the adaptability of the company, its uncompromising hard work on quality and its focus on the creation of the climate, in which individuals and the organization at large can develop and thrive. Court rhythm be it cricket, squash, or business, is still the same: be disciplined, be focused and never give up in pursuit of excellence.
