At my 35th college anniversary from an elite liberal arts college, I put together a panel of alumni to talk about what they had done professionally and personally.
Most of the graduates in technical or STEM fields were still working in their major fields, and had done well, but had reached the top of the pay range for their jobs. The ones who had done the best were those who loved their work.
However, most of the most successful businesspeople -- and virtually all the CEOs -- were English or Econ majors. While an economics degree aligns obviously with business, an English degree appears not to do so. However, it seems the English major (at least from my college, which is very rigorous intellectually) can lead to great success in business, as the abilities to read critically, think analytically and write clearly are needed in virtually every business, and are rare.
I am a female English major with a law degree. I have earned mid to upper six figures in the last third of my career. Most years I have earned 3 - 5 times as much as my husband, who is also a lawyer, placed higher in law school than I did, but is focused on a specialty involving computers and software that does not attract nearly as much money.
He wanted our kid to major in something practical, so she turned herself inside out to try to major in computer science. It was not for her, but first she made herself miserable, hurt her gpa, and had a depression that required therapy before we convinced her to instead major in something that played to HER strengths, rather than doing what my DH wanted her to do -- she wanted so badly to please him.
She is now happy, has recovered her gpa and her confidence, has earned awards in performance arts, and is about to graduate from her elite college with an English degree. She will no doubt make less money for the first five years after college than a kid who is in STEM, but I'm sure she will find a way to make plenty in the (creative) business she plans to go into, because she has excellent analytic and communications skills, a great work ethic, and the confidence to make decisions, plus great personal thrift.
To a large extent, when you are a parent, you have to accept kids as they are, and guide them, but they already want to please their parents, so if anything one needs to expressly give them permission to be imperfect and to follow their own paths in life, rather than pushing them to follow your ideas for their lives.
In my opinion, kids learn a lot from their parents both from what the parents say and what the parents do. Sharing your background and your story - the good and the bad - with your kids will help them understand what drives you,and, importantly, that you are not perfect (most children think their parents are perfect, and that makes it difficult to differ with one's parents as one grows up). Ultimately, a parent wants his or her child to grow into a functional independent adult who can navigate the world without the parent. That requires independent thinking by the young adult; and that means the young adult cannot worry about being cut off emotionally by the parent.