“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.”
— Colette Colette
Colette lived this line literally. Her first husband, Henri Gauthier-Villars (Willy), forced her to write novels and published them under his name. When she left, she had to start from zero: performing half-naked on stage for money. Parisian society was scandalized. She did not stop. By sixty she was the most famous woman writer in France.
I was twenty when Willy locked me in a room and told me to write. He took my notebooks, put his name on them and sold them. Four Claudine novels made him rich. I got nothing but the experience. When I left him at thirty-three, I had no money and no name. I went to dance in music halls. Paris laughed. But I danced, I wrote, and I never asked permission to live the way I wanted. If someone is using you, leave. If they laugh, keep going. Enthusiasm matters more than approval.