Leaping from a stable full-time job to starting your marketing agency sounds like the ultimate dream: being your boss, setting your schedule, choosing your clients.  But here's what most people don't talk about. The transition is brutal, and agency life is nothing like having a job. The sleepless nights wondering if you'll make payroll, the feast-or-famine cycle that becomes your new normal, the crushing weight of being responsible for everything from client delivery to keeping the lights on. One day, you're celebrating landing a dream client, the next you're dealing with scope creep that's eating your profit margins alive.