Here We go..

1. I had a degree in engineering for Electronics and communication
2. I learned about web development (Asp then, Database and webservers)
3. I got a job as web developer.
4. Got interested in search engines and visited forums like http://forums.seochat.com and various other discussion groups.
5. Learnt the SEO techniques by trial and error for my first site, tried various strategies, I should say 9 out of 10 failed.
6. In the mean time there was lot of help from seomoz.com matcutts.com etc and participate in google webmaster groups..

I now have a successful seo business at http://www.submitinme.com

Its a combination of all.. The best place to start with is the google webmaster group.

Hope this helps and good luck