This week I have been pondering empathy as one of the richest skills within Emotional Intelligence.

Last week at a BIP100 lunch, we discussed the blend of AI and EI and how powerful the two are when treated with the same amount of strategic and tactical priority in business. As we explored this between twelve of us around the table, I found myself thinking about the level of empathy in the room toward one another.

There was an unsaid understanding. A deep care. And it existed because every one of us was a business owner, living in a world that has so many emotional and practical challenges to overcome. We didn't need to explain ourselves. We just knew.

This is what separates a true business mastermind from a transactional meeting. It is not about exchanging tips or leads. It is about being in a room with people who understand your world because they are living it too.

There is a beautiful phrase that I have seen creeping into the English language over the past couple of years - "lived experience." And what this is actually saying is, "I understand, because I have lived that too."

The business owner who has failed to achieve the highs they sought and is trying again and again. The ex-corporate leader who, for the first time, is building their own brand and selling their expertise. The business exit that was not as great as hoped for, and the feeling of loss that can go so deep. Fellow mums who understand one another - the empty nest, the first day at nursery, the first gap year abroad.

I always share my lived experiences in these Ponderings. That wisdom, that lightbulb moment, can only come from a deep experience of joy or pain. And as I write this, I realise that what I am really pondering is the importance of finding your tribe - those people who truly "get" what you are going through.

Recently, at an event my daughter Hannah Power was running in New York, I was deeply moved by a talk that asked us all to close our eyes and think of the most painful moment in our lives, and to reflect on what made it so painful.

I opened my eyes with tears. I looked around and saw others the same. And the consensus in the room was striking - the most painful part of any lived experience was the loneliness of it. The difficulty of finding others who truly understood. But when we did find those people, it was life-changing. A moment of being loved at the level we needed it.

I have spent many years in executive networking groups, and I have seen the difference between rooms where people perform and rooms where people are real. The best executive network group is one where the masks come off, where lived experience is valued as much as expertise, and where empathy is not a soft skill but a strategic one.

This is why I know that community is my dream role in life. To bring together people who are living their experiences together, without ego or shame. Just living and talking, hugging and loving our way through all the non-linear aspects of modern business.

For those of us based in and around the capital, business networking in London can feel relentless - event after event, pitch after pitch. But the connections that truly sustain us are not found in volume. They are found in depth. In shared understanding. In people who have walked a similar path.

Loneliness is tough. Shared lived experiences are a lifeline.

So this week, perhaps think about whether you need people around you who get what you are going through - and seek them out. Whether the challenge is in business or family, with children or parents, none of us know the way through without living these moments. And being close to others who understand is the best medicine of all.