Waiting for the Tide

What if I waited for the tide to turn? What if there was no preset program, no established plan for a better world, what then? Why was life bestowed on many who do nothing more than chase rabbit trails trying to make sense of senseless chaos?
The cantor of Ecclesiastes states the basic premise that all that can really be established about the life we live in this sphere is to make the most of opportunities that present themselves. In brief, he instructs us to taste and enjoy--Fully experience the things provided by our Creator. Can any of us truly make a different mark upon this world? Some seem to have done great and impressive things...still, there is nothing new under the sun and what has been before will be seen again hereafter.
Some go through life, enjoying what is handed their way, gliding, so to speak, and comfortable. ... Nothing ventured, nothing gained? or do they gain?
I ask again, which is better, a life of comparative comfort without risk and without anxiety, or the full blown risk taking face to the wind, relentless pilgrimage of one who invests all, often disappointed time and again? and this with the possibility of perhaps never reaching higher than one's compatriot who sits and glides and enjoys? Which is better? to fight and fail or to wait for the handouts that seem everywhere available to those who risk nothing? Is it better to collect the tidbits that fall from the hands of those who run wildly into the wind, hoping to make a better world?