From the ancient dramatist Seneca the Younger:
“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
And from the Bard, not to be outdone in metaphors of ships and seas:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and miseries.
We must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
Sutter’s Mill 