Empathy plays a pretty significant role in my life and my relationships with people, whether personal or professional. It plays
a role in that it helps me understand people better and the way they think, their perspectives and beliefs, and helps me have a better understanding
of human nature. I'm not quite sure how empathy would help me build better software, the only thing I can think of is what the user
might experience or if I was working on a team and needed to be empathetic with my teammates. Empathy is important for working on a team
for several reasons: It helps establish rapport and trust with others. If a disagreement or arguement comes up, it is essential in difusing the situtation
before things became more hostile between team members. It helps establish and solidify common ground so that everyone's perspectives
are seen, taken into consideration and evaluated in the same light, so to speak.

Example situation: It was helpful to empathize with a colleague in the following situation: As a former professional and full time
musician, there were a lot of situations on gigs or rehearsals that required everyone to be on the same team. There is a lot of ego
in the music world and things can get ugly very quickly. The situation was in a rehearsal where I was seen as not fulfuilling my duties
during a certain part of the song. The guitarist was yelling at me, and I could see why but it was my ability to empathize with him
and see his perspective that really helped me not just start doing the same thing back at him. It's a level of maturity that some people
just don't have. It was helpful in that it made me not lash out and stay calm in the situation and attempt to reach a middle ground.
I find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional situations when I know that the other person has low levels of empathy or can sense
that it is a skill they have not worked on or developed. Especially if the person has a fixed or stubborn personality, it can be quite
challenging. I can improve my skills mainly by working on my patience, which has always been difficult for me my entire life. I can also
improve my empathy skills by practicing them consistently while at Turing which will be a great starting point after being self-employed
with my own business for such a long time.