He was born for it.
He attended drawing school at the age of 12 (he was said to be an excellent draftsman even then) and discovered modern painting on a summer vacation to Cadaques with the family of Ramon Pichot Girones (an Impressionist artist and friend of Picasso). Pichot became a mentor for Dali and encouraged him to explore his own style.
In 1917 at the age of 13, Dali�s father organised an exhibition of his charcoal drawings at his home for local friends and family, and he made his first public exhibition in 1919 at the age of 15.