I agree that at the end of the day its very much up to yourself and what you want from the instrument. I teach banjo and always try to send the pupil away after the first lesson able to play something even if its only a small run of notes. Same for the guitar - its great to be able to "Show off" so to speak that you can play something. The other advice is to try and get into informal sessions where the odd wrong note or chord wont matter. It gets you into the practice of playing and you will probably get a lot of advice as well. Good luck