Their older children all became doctors, but their youngest son chose/followed a different (career) 'path'.
His friends all went to college, but he chose to 'follow' a different path. [=to do something different]
He believes the average consumer is being 'led down the garden path' by the promises in advertisements.
(..) Promise me you'll come back. I promise. Someday. When I'm really supposed to. That night, I reached two conclusions. The first was that a dangerous path is made much worse by darkness. The second was that I was hopelessly and irrevocably lost. These woods would become my graveyard. (..)2003 Big Fish