11 years, and it's been a rough journey with plenty of tough times over the years. Took me from 2005 until 2008 to become a winning player after moving to cash games, even in those glory days of super soft games. Two years later at the end of 2010 I finally quit my job to play full time, and moved to Thailand.
As for advice, I would say to concentrate on one single game/format until you're at least a decent confirmed winner. The other thing I underestimated a lot was how important the mental game is for your results. When everything in your life is going well and you're mentally in a good place it doesn't matter so much, but things can spiral out of control during the tough times taking your win rate with it. I'm speaking from experience after a couple of really rough runs where I struggled to accept my preparation was the reason for my downfall.