All I've found is that the more I help people, the more I get taken advantage of. It hasn't stopped me from helping others (although I probably should...), but it really galls me when they toss me aside after my usefulness to them has passed.
A common Nice Guy pattern is helping someone else with the (unstated) expectation that they will reciprocate. Glover calls it a "covert contract." I had to learn that I was doing this, and it was embarrassing to learn that I was, in fact, doing it.
Google "Robert Glover" and "Nice Guy Syndrome" if you want to check whether this might have some applicability to your situation.
Specifically to my situation: I help someone I've known for awhile, and afterwards I expect that it will develop a closer working relationship of some sort in the future because they'll remember that I helped them out and that we can work together to accomplish things.
What really happens is that after I've helped them, they're not interested in any collaboration anymore unless it meets their immediate needs, and definitely aren't interested in helping out if I need it in future.
Doing something and expecting something in return.
Who is a Nice Guy?
* He is the relative who lets his wife run the show.
* He is the friend who will do anything for anybody, but whose own life seems to be in shambles.
* He is the guy who frustrates his wife because he is so afraid of conflict that nothing ever gets resolved.
* He is the boss who tells one person what they want to hear, then reverses himself to please someone else.
* He is the man who lets people walk all over him because he doesn't want to rock the boat.
* He is the dependable guy at work who will never say “no,” but would never tell anyone if they were imposing on him.
* He is the man whose life seems so under control, until BOOM, one day he does something to destroy it all.
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This is very different from someone who does someone else a solid, and then that person "owes him one". Someone gets you free tickets to the game, and 3 months later you get them an introduction that helps them out. It's not a 1:1 thing obviously, but there's an expectation of loose reciprocity over the years.
In all relationships you have to be on the giving part at least some of the time, otherwise you're just a user. And if you're on the giving part all of the time, you're a doormat. Both are unhealthy.
With that pointed out, the top comment in the parent cannot be dismissed by a mere labeling of "Nice Guy". His experience is a valid criticism of Keith's message, and it is a reality that the message is not universally applicable. You definitely will get people who'll take advantage of you. They'll see that you're willing to help them, and they'll keep coming to you for more and more help. There will even be folks who'll get upset when you don't help them. That you have to put barriers between yourself and such folk is not something the book handles well (read it years ago so I may be wrong).
Another one - I don't know if it's in that book - is that people generally feel the need to reciprocate nice gestures. Unwanted help can feel a lot like unwanted debt.
If you are disappointed that nothing came out of it, you might have been making covert contracts as someone else pointed out.