Oh yes absolutely, he explained that initially the other villagers had thought him crazy, then after a few years and visible progress some started giving him food or chipping in for tools replacement.
The sheer perseverance is humbling. I have a hard time staying focused on anything for much longer than week, and those tend to be interesting and intellectually rewarding, to be focused on transforming rock to rubble and removing it for decades is somewhere just below 'god mode'.