I recently saw Carl Malamud [1] speak, and he said straight out that for his projects it has generally taken a decade to get somewhere. From his descriptions, it sounded like the first years were mainly him being ignored, but that eventually his continued presence meant people with power started paying more attention. His advice to the crowd was definitely to pick projects they'd be happy to spend 10 years working on.
Exactly how I felt. I had heard the Gandhi quote, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." But knowing what Malamud has accomplished, and knowing how obvious some of his stuff seems in retrospect, it was really heartening to know that the first stage for him took years.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Malamud