Bucks President Peter Feigin sets aside sales pitch at UW-Milwaukee commencement

Milwaukee Bucks President Peter Feigin can unspool a pitch for the team's new arena on command.

But he's setting aside the salesman spiel and venturing into less comfortable territory on Sunday when he dispenses wisdom to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee class of 2018. He speaks at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to thousands of graduates in ceremonies at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

"This is 99 percent more personal than anything else I do," said Feigin, who will deliver a commencement address for the first time.

"Usually, I'm selling 24/7 and always working on positioning" and other marketing schemes, he said.

He confessed to "nervously sweating" about the opportunity, and said he would focus on dispensing career advice. And he promised not to swear.

"I'm going to tell them that I have the greatest job in the world and that I'm here to tell you that you can do the same thing," Feigin said.

He plans to run through a list of workplace "dos and don'ts" that he said have served him well and that he demands all Bucks employees to follow.

Among them:

• "Be present. Or don't show up." Feigin said that employees who are "going to be toxic to others" should stay home — or find another place to work.
• Know who you work for. "I serve the organization. It does not serve you."
• "Don't be a jerk."

Feigin said he's learned the hard way that this advice isn't the easiest to follow.

"I know that I've failed at every one of these principles at one time or another."

Feigin said that if the students remembered one thing from his speech it would be this advice: "Work your ass off and make the world better."