"Together alone" is what I live by, don't count on anyone, shoot as much as you can. If it's worth it then it will be noticed by those who are worth showing it to.
We live in a period of extreme exposure to bad photography, it is so easy to create a flickr accont and out of the billions of people on earth, find a few thousands who write complimentary comments about your work that will then, never get better. Nothing should be shown before it's ready, that'd be a good start for some advice.
You will find more from Eric Antoine at: http://www.ericantoinephoto.com/