Ahh, the old make your players think they are doing what they want to do. I like your style.
No seriously, that's a really good way to play it out. Because that's exactly how it works. For the most part players are going to want to do whatever it is that makes their characters more powerful, famous, cooler, etc... So by putting the obstacle in front of their path to powerful, etc, it's a guaranteed they are going to head that way.