Thanks for your comment. You're spot on with this. In fact, when I first "learned" about professional networking, I was taught/ reminded to go out and not try to have an agenda.

A lot of people network for an agenda. Ie. to get that job, to ask for a favor, or to get closer to a company/ executive. When you do that, it becomes obvious it gives off a very different and undesirable vibe.

It was the same advise I got, to spend time learning about the other person. To genuinely want to know them, and find that common space where both can find an interest. This way, the connection will last. The "by-product" of that, would be knowledge. More often than not, you will realized that you're learning about things that you wouldn't normally pick up if you've been keeping to your circle. This is real netowrking. When it's time that you need to leverage that network, it can be for the relations, but more often than not, it's actually the knowledge that you've acquired from that network that's the real gold!