The people whining about the new 8,000 hour YouTube requirements were never cut out for this and have nothing to do with your success. You will make it because you were always gonna make it. They won't because they were always gonna give up.

I know the new 8,000 watch hour requirement scares some people but I don't know if everyone (who isn't monetized) understands what 8,000 watch hours in the last 12 months really means.

I got a smaller channel with a small audience. I have almost 18,000 subscribers and that's a lot to me, but I'm definitely not a big channel.

I got 8,000 watch hours in the last 30 days and 190,000 watch hours in the last 12 months. Its by no means easy and it took a lot of work to build a small audience but even if you have no subscribers, if you find a topic that is highly in demand in your niche, then you can get way more views than I can.

Having my channel since Sept. of 2023, I'm not a shining example of an overly successful YouTube channel. Many people I know in my internet circle have surpassed me but I'm happy with my audience and continue working on my own path - and its paying down my debts, dammit! My point is that whining about the required watch hours to obtain your partnership is pointless because if you're barely hitting the 8,000 hours mark (in 265 days) you're not even making that much money or building an audience.

I don't know why its discouraging. Don't you see yourself getting a million watch hours in 12 months one day? Why does this number matter to you when you were always gonna make it happen? If something isn't working you have to change it and figure out what your people want to watch and what will make them watch longer.

Many people are going to quit because of this but they were always gonna quit, and that leaves more room for you. Now is the best time ever to start a channel. Don't let the negative energy rub off on you because your success isn't determined by a barrier that you were always going to surpass.

^(As for shorts creators, my condolences to y'all. I don't even know what to say about that except damn.)