Luck and exploration. I happened to live near an environment that had a diverse range of sounds at the time. Picked up some mixes/CDs of different styles. I didn't really get into it as an actual genre though until I got a pair of decks. Then, it was largely just through dumpster diving. I only bought decks when I was about 3-4 hours from NYC and was in a region where there weren't many DJs playing what I enjoyed. There was a fair amount of house and that was it. So, grabbed a pair of decks to start making mixes for myself and, in the process of buying records, stumbled across all the acid techno I like now. Didn't really have any help or guidance which was both good and bad I guess. None of my friends were into any techno.