The beauty of FFXIV is that there's literally 'always' something to do. The amount of quests, battles, and achievements allows this to be true. My LS really switches up what we do each night. One night, we might do 'endgame' fights (ifrit/moogle). Other nights, we might run around trying to kill world NM's to get people achievements. Another night, we might be leveling other jobs, or doing dungeons 'just because'. There's always something to do... but the REAL thing that makes this game (and ultimately made XI as well) is the community behind it.

This, more than any other MMO I played (except XI), requires you to have a solid group of people you can count on who can also count on you. This game made it so you CAN solo until a decent level and CAN find parties when you don't want to solo, but you'll always do better if you are in a linkshell.

Benefits of joining a linkshell:

-- You can ask questions without having to shout or post it on the forums (which may or may not be met with unkind responses or annoyed players saying 'this has already been asked before!')
-- If there are enough people in the LS, there will PROBABLY be people with each craft to 50, or at least high enough to repair your gear. Gear won't be as expensive (because you can have someone craft it for you), you can get people to repair as soon as you need it, and you can get people to affix materia for you.
-- Linkshells have experience working together, and will be able to point you in the right direction with progression as well as quests. They might even help you with things you could not possibly solo.
-- There's always something to do with enough people. There are also things to do with TOO much people, or you can just split up into two groups if you'd like.
-- Creating a leveling party is 10x easier, and if you are at least 40+, you can tag along with the common 'spirit bind' parties... (people killing just to spiritbind their gear and eventually turn it into materia, which can be affixed to other gear to give it a buff... a similar concept to affixing 'jewels' in WoW, except 'materia' has always been a distinctly FF thing)

So, my advice to you is to find a linkshell. It doesn't take long to get at least one job to 50, and you will be 'useful' within a few weeks if you play your cards right. My advice to you is to work on quests in between leveling. The main quests, class quests, and company quests will all benefit you in some way. If you don't want to work for a chocobo, grab a goobbue when you hit 30. Being able to move fast is more or less a requirement.

And don't waste too much anima! You will regret it.