Solo mining is like buying a lottery ticket.  Getting a block accepted is very rare - but if/when you do, WHOO HOO!  25BTC + fees !!

So yes, you would (almost) never have a block accepted.

Everyone should have solo mining configured as a backup, and test it occasionally.  This makes the bitcoin network resilient against the loss of one or more pools. 

Now, you are ahead of me.  I still haven't got solo mining configured.  I have some questions too.

Why does solo mining need a bitcoind?  What does it use the api for?
Does the bitcoind have to use the same wallet as the BTC address configured for solo mining?
Can bitcoin-qt also provide the API?
What if bitcoind is down?  Does cgminer disable solo mining?  (Just as for a pool that is down)
If cgminer is talking to bitcoind, can we assume it is working?  It would be a shame to find a block, and then lose it because cgminer wasn't actually configured correctly. 
Does finding a block modify the wallet in any way?  Or is bitcoind only used to talk to the bitcoin network?  Could I run a bitcoind with an arbitrary empty wallet?