Paths are so difficult to find.
I would state that every one of your counsellors and guides didn't actually "know" anything, they were just spouting the party line.
Go to college, get a j.o.b. (just over broke) and save for a retirement is bunk.
Books such as Worthless by Aaron Clarey show that most college degrees will never pay for themselves.
So, all of these guides are telling you about what they have heard, not what they really experienced, and all their hot air is antiquated.
Rarely do we have people that can tell young people where opportunities are out there, or even what to do with them. Instead we have a group of professors who were trained by groups of professors that only real experience has been ivory towers. Of course their guidance is useless for anything that doesn't deal with ivory towers.