I agree it takes way too long....
I am only at about 47 SP. On one side of the coin I want to take the quick route and invest money but on the other side of the coin I want to see how far I can take an account from scratch.
I think its important that we can show that its possible to be successful on Steemit without investments other then time spent on the site. To me its one of the key factors on if Steemit will moon or not.
I think I may open a second account and do my investing on that one while growing this one organically.