People salty that I am gatekeeping - I am literally trying to keep them out of paying a bunch of money to skeevy organizations who will not help them land a job at all in the collapsing cybersecurity job market.

Get a degree in CS or computer/network engineering. Pick a general niche in cybersecurity, preferably less popular. Get your basic IT certs. Get a generalist IT support role. Get your second-tier certs. Network with people like hell for a couple years. Keep up your self-study. Participate in the community. Get somewhat lucky.

If you can't get the degree, then everything is the same but a lot more of the general IT work and all the other stuff to make a lateral career move later. The military is a possibility if that's your thing.