Most literary agents start as readers, covering scripts
for producers, prodCo's, studios and agents.
Many have the ambition to be an agent (not a writer)
and start in the mail room of a large agency and work
their way up. Mike Ovitz did that.
Many have started as an office assistant in a small agency.
Some agents begin as personal assistants.
Many agents begin as lawyers, going through years of
law school and then using their knowledge and connections
to broker a script deal and then get hired by an agency.
Since there are far fewer agents than screenwriters and it's
business oriented rather than creative and it's very, very
difficult to reach the point where you (as an agent) has
any clout at all, why does your writing partner think many
years of learning business and law and making connections
and 80 hour weeks would make a lot more easy for you as
far as getting your scripts seen?
It seems counter productive to spend the next 8 to 10 years
working hard to become good at being an agent in order to
get your script seen. It seems much easier to write an excellent
low budget script, put together $8,000 to $10,000 and make
a kick ass movie. Then when agents come calling show them
your 5 to 8 excellent scripts. Or option your excellent, low budget
script to a local filmmaker and let them make the kick ass movie.
Or just get your scripts out there to be seen without an agent at all.