Compounding

Earning a return on returns already earned. It is the reason long-horizon outcomes are so unintuitive.

₹1,00,000 growing at 15% for twenty years becomes ₹16,36,654. At 12% over the same period it becomes ₹9,64,629, so three percentage points of annual return produced 70% more terminal wealth.

The asymmetry runs the other way too. A 50% loss requires a 100% gain to recover, which is why avoiding permanent capital loss dominates chasing returns in any process that has to survive several decades.

Interruptions cost more than the arithmetic suggests.