10 Life Lessons To Learn From Natalie Cole

The legendary singer and actor Natalie Cole has left us physically, but will live on in our hearts and minds forever. She was a woman of immense talent who left us with a legacy of unforgettable music and memories. Her life as the daughter of her famous father, Nat King Cole, was tumultuous, with many highs and lows, but she always managed to rise to the top.

Here are some important life lessons we can all learn from the legendary Natalie Cole.

10 Life Lessons to Learn from Natalie Cole

1. Classic songs go with classic beauty

“People say I look younger than the music I’m doing just because the songs are older. Hopefully I can keep my youthful look!”

2. Absorb musical wisdom from legends whenever possible

“The kind of music I grew up on was Harry Belafonte and Count Basie. Pearl Bailey was very active, Ella Fitzgerald. They came over to the house for lunch, played golf with dad.”

“The people I met were so nice, you know they were like uncles and aunts to me. They looked at me as like an adopted daughter or something because they really thought the world of our family. And I was very knowledgeable musically, I just thought that’s what music was all about. I didn’t get off into the contemporary music until much later.”

3. Embrace other cultures

“I think foreign countries really do like it when American artists sing in their language. And when you go over there and say, ‘Hi, how are you?’ in their language, they love it. It makes them feel like you’re doing it just for them. We in America take so much for granted.”

On receiving a donor kidney from a woman from El Salvador: “I wouldn’t put it past the possibility that there is a spirit of Latino inside of me, because of this family, Ever since then, my passion for Spanish and everything Latin, all of a sudden became more intense. I couldn’t even figure it out myself.”

4. Pick a role model who is courageous

“My idols are Janis Joplin and Annie Lennox, who are neither of them from the typical pop culture.”

5. The school of hard knocks gives an excellent education

“I don’t think that my parents even imagined that I would be exposed to drugs. In those days, for some reason, it was not talked about, just like sex was not talked about.”

“I’ve had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn’t done.”

“I had no fear, and I think that is one of the insanities of being on drugs, that you really aren’t afraid of anything.”

“I think your 20s are the hardest part of life. I mean, everyone goes on about how hard it is to be a teenager, but actually I think it’s tougher to be in your 20s because you’re expected to be a grownup and expected to earn your own living and be successful and I think you feel like a kid still.”

6. Faith gets you through the hard times

“God surrounded me with people of faith, people of strong faith, people of power, spiritual power, and I saw little miracles happen in their lives. By it happening in their lives, I started believing it could happen to me. I’m a little like Thomas: I doubt. I know that the Lord is good, but I have been a doubter of His goodness for me.”

“When you have put all your faith in man and continue to be disappointed, don’t you hope there is something out of there that is not of human element?”

“God was going to be to me the father that I never had, the father that I didn’t have enough of, enough time with. God was saying, ‘I can do that for you if you let Me.’ And that’s what He’s been to me. I had to learn to trust that as a father He would be there for me, that He disciplines me, that He encourages me, that He tests me, that He challenges me, that He believes in me, and that He has great things for me. All I have to do is trust and follow.”

“Never stop working on your relationship with the Lord. It is an awesome experience. He is there in our lives.”

7. Wait for the right love

“I really wanted a man in my life so badly it was pathetic. It was pathetic because it took so much of my time and it took so much out of me. I realized that every time I did that I would give myself away. I was not keeping the most important part.”

8. Take risks

On what traits of her father that she hopes she has: “His fearlessness. He was a pioneer. In so many ways He would step out on faith to do something musically he felt and he would just take that risk.”

9. Bounce back after adversity

“You know, I may be down for a minute, but once I figure it out, I can’t stay there for too long.”

10. Losing someone you love isn’t easy, but you make the best of it

On singing with her father: “I never got a chance to say goodbye so I continue to converse and tell my dad how much I love him when I get an opportunity to sing these kinds of songs.”