My personal opinion first but if you don’t care PLEASE Scroll below to get started:
I discovered through my very small window of being in cybersecurity. I get a common question asked. “What does it take to get into Cybersecurity?”. It honestly is a difficult question to answer but really I ask these individuals “Why do you want to get into it?”. most of the time I always hear,

“It’s a really high paying career”

I usually will refrain them from joining or trying to get started, I only do this not to be negative or discourage the individual. But to explain to them, ANY career can be successful and generate a lot of money with the right organization.

But if your only influence is money or to get paid then you will either ultimately fail or you won’t have the true desire to be a true cybersecurity professional. But if the individual just shows genuine interest I would tell them to do some research and reach out again if they are a bit more serious. Trust me I wanted to be a Virologist and I realized that was not going to happen because I truly didn’t have the desire or passion to go.

But by all means if you really want to get into cyber only for the money. All power to you and hopefully it will spark some actual motivation and interest in the career. It’s just personally, I can tell when someone is passionate about cyber compared to someone who only wants it for the money.

But here is some things I would tell anyone who wants to get into cyber that I deem the most important things to have, know or required.
Be prepared to do these like no joke if you want to develop, you gotta do this. I truly believe if you do these 3 things constantly you will seriously make it.

My 3 Golden Steps:
1: Always do labs and get hands-on – I truly believe the only reason I am where I am was I was always doing labs or getting hands-on. Even if I was completely clueless. Google and timed research can go a long way. If you can’t get professional experience then get hands-on lab experience. It seriously counts, trust me.
2: Invest in yourself or always find ways to constantly learn, In the field of cybersecurity. The environment is constantly changing. So never give up the “learning” mindset and always try to educate yourself in something related to cyber either through private trainings, certifications, conventions etc.
3: Don’t quit, you will run into some complex tasks or some super brain boggling concept that your brain just won’t accept. but the longer you persist at it and try to understand it eventually it will come to light.