I expect part of my urging people to "have patience" with their ventures stems from the fact that I tend to be fairly measured in terms of what I get involved with; I tend to do a few things, rather than flit around from this to that and back again. Which might sound slightly weird, given that I have lots and lots of diverse interests...
20+ years ago I was somewhat involved in Network Marketing, and one of the things I learned from a mentor was how to look at "systems" and "programs." In the vast majority of cases, it's not a matter of whether "the program" works, it's a matter of whether or not YOU work. Of course, most people who are on the hunt for some secret "money for nothing" solution really don't want to HEAR that.
When I got here, I "made a deal with myself" that I would take about a year to see if this was something I wanted to stick with... and beyond that, my time frame was 3-5 years. I wasn't one of the earliest arrivals, either, but I figured I could still establish a solid presence here before "mass adoption;" were such a thing to occur. Based om results-to-date, I feel pretty good about continuing to invest time and effort here, and slowly building some "equity" (SP) in the community.
Building a great foundation to stand on before mass adoption is often the key. I noticed the barrier to entry to get noticed in newer arrivals is increasing quite high.
I'm not sure how far off we are but it seems to be creeping up on us. I even joined a nice little community and seeing how fast that is growing is just amazing.
Being part of a community can definitely be advantageous. I belong to Steemit Bloggers and it grew so fast they capped membership at 300 in an effort to keep it so we mostly would all know each other.