In scripture, God gives us guidelines for wise living but Ecclesiastes points out that living according to God's laws is not a guarantee that we will be successful and prosperous in this life.  We have a small sphere of control but it represents only a small portion of our sphere of concern, the things that we care about.  Much of our sphere of concern is out of our control which is where we learn to trust that God is up to eternal good.  Everything in this life is dust.  We should constantly ask ourselves, "What are the eternal conmsequences of this?  What could God be up to?"