I fell into it... my family was mechanically declined but my best friend in high school's Dad had a 61 Thunderbird that he was going to "restore." Best of intentions but not the skills and we were more than willing to help out!
I think it was Senior year in HS we ran across a 69 Camaro and he talked his Dad into buying it. After HS I went into auto tech school and would practice on the Camaro!! That was my first live engine rebuild. First transmission rebuild. First suspension rebuild. Car is still running and driving today on the same hardware so I must have done something right!
Never looked back... This year makes 20 in the biz.