Focus on what you can do for the other party. Whether it's just listening, or troubleshooting, or taking advantage of a natural rapport to bring a chuckle. Th

Focus on what you can do for the other party. Whether it's just listening, or troubleshooting, or taking advantage of a natural rapport to bring a chuckle. This does not involve or imply becoming a doormat. The thing needs to be mutually enjoyable / beneficial. Then, when someone offers to help you, you'll recognize when the offer is genuine and you are not "imposing". Some connections -- many? -- are simply a dead end. Don't "push it", with these -- for the other party's sake as well as your own.