Index funds are a great place to start, but you have to find the right one. There are so many these days. Low fee and generally popular index is good. I also like to put a few dollars into each of a few different stocks that are new and have potential. I got into Tesla, but not as early as I wish, and Netflix, both have done well. But if you want to go with stocks, you gotta research and buy to keep many promising ones so if one dumps, the others can cushion the fall.
You won't ever get 2000% returns from an Index.