If at first you succeed, try again.

Winston-Salem native Stuart Vaughn has spent his career bucking the conventional wisdom that you can't simultaneously manage brokerage offices and sell effectively.

While helping develop two brokerage networks, the Davidson College graduate became one of the state's most successful brokers.

After

a stint in the Winston office of Alex. Brown & Sons, Vaughn and partners Don McMillion and Ed Crawford bought Durham-based First Securities Co. in 1968. Four years later, they sold the company to Richmond, Va.-based Wheat Securities Inc. (McMillion later left to form his own investment management company in Greensboro, while Crawford remains with Wheat.)

Over the next 15 years, as Vaughn helped build Wheat First Securities into a statewide player with 10 offices, he saw his own role diminishing. So in January 1988 he left to become the first North Carolina employee of Scott & Stringfellow, another Richmond brokerage that hadn't kept pace with its more aggressive rival. "Wheat was getting pretty big, and I wanted to get more involved in building up something new again," he says.

Now, five years later, Scott & Stringfellow has eight offices and 45 brokers in the state, some of the growth stemming from acquisitions of Independence Securities in Greensboro and the Fox, Graham & Mintz brokerage in Wilmington.

"Stuart saw us as a firm similar to his first firm, First Securities, and we said we'd like to expand and have him do it for us," says Scott & Stringfellow CEO Bill Schubmehl.

But the Virginians like Vaughn, 56, for more than his management skills. His sales ranked fourth among Scott & Stringfellow's 170 brokers last year. Keys to his success, he says, are lots of breakfast meetings and travel to meet with executives of North Carolina public companies. He talks to customers in the morning, then handles administrative chores in the afternoon.

Off the job, Vaughn stays involved with money, having helped lead a $20 million fund-raising campaign for Davidson's new athletic complex. His contacts made him a smart choice for that job. Says Schubmehl: "Stuart has a marvelous personality, and he has friends everywhere he goes."