Improve my networking skills

I have purchased an address book and a planner to be more organized, and so far have actually started using them. My name-remembering skills are improving now that I’m having to use them again (yay for school), but I haven’t had much luck with professional connections. I did, however, meet a gentleman working at a county fair two weeks ago who I plan to stay in touch with…he has been performing with a “flea circus” for twenty years and tours the country with his act. He told me if I was ever interested in following that profession, he would personally work with me on it. Most people would laugh that sort of thing off, but as a kid, I used to want to do stuff like that when I grew up. Who knows? Maybe I’ll run away with the flea circus.

Networking feels very insincere to me. Logically, though, I know that I need such skills in order to survive in any of the careers that I’m interested in pursuing. How do I break free from the feeling that networking is basically making friends strictly for beneficial purposes? Or, if I can’t let go of that feeling, how can I let go of seeing networking as a bad thing?