If your future plan is to stay in a 9 to 5 job building software for your employer and climbing the ladder of the corporation to reach high career titles, and you think that would make you happy, then this post is not for you. Keep doing what are you doing. If you are happy doing it, then you already won.
This post may not apply to all individuals or projects, it is just my observation and personal experience. So, take it with a grain of salt.
But if you are working as a software engineer, and your mind and soul are eager to create your own path by moonlighting side projects that you enjoy working on, and wanting to be as independent as it gets. Then these words are for you.
You may do not want to invest a lot of time on crafting your software, but invest your time to put it on production. Focus on validating your idea as soon as possible and do not focus on which design patterns that you should write your code. Do not try to build it using the latest shiny framework in the market, but build with the tools that you already know and master.
If your idea is destined to fail, then allow it to fail as fast as possible, and move on. Building minimal viable products is not a bad idea at all. Once your side project has its initial attraction and you feel that there is a potential, you can bootstrap it and if it becomes profitable you will have all the time in the world to rebuild it as shiny as you want.
Starting a side project and focusing on a detailed aspect of the code instead of building the business value can drain your enthusiasm for completing the project without you even realising it. You will find yourself slowly stopping working on it and finally abandoning it.
Keep in mind, that does not mean that people with gratification for programming never released a successful side project. People are different and ideas as well, every project has its series of circumstances which contributed in its failure or success.