Compound interest is not a slogan about getting rich. It is a shape. A sum that grows by a percent also grows the growth. Early on, the line looks lazy. Later, the added part is earning too, and the curve bends up. That is why a patient rate, left alone, beats a dramatic one that keeps getting interrupted. The math is ordinary. The waiting is the hard part.
Compounding is the growth earning growth. Time is the ingredient people skip.