"You can't do anything really well unless you love it, and if you love to hack you'll inevitably be working on projects of your own." Paul Graham, Hackers and Painters
Context: Experience is built upon failure as much as (if not more than) success.

Problem: You work in an environment that does not allow for failure. Yet failure is the only way to learn anything. Since only by attempting to do bold things, failing, learning from that failure, and trying again do we grow into the kind of people who can succeed when faced with difficult problems.

Solution: Budget for failure by designing and building toy systems that are similar to the systems you build at work in toolset but not in scope.