You don't want what I have? Really?

Last summer I had the chance to play in a charity golf tournament for the Children's Medical Center of Dallas. It was a terrific event and was hosted by the firm I was working with. I had the chance to play in a foursome with our Managing Partner, a great friend of mine, and one of their clients who we'll call "Stuart." Throughout our round of golf Stuart and I really hit it off and had a lot of things in common. He was a serial entrepreneur and had achieve his fair share of successes throughout his career. He had recently had a fairly major win with his current company and was excited about the growth potential over the next few years.
After the tournament "Stuart" and I exchanged contact information and kept in touch throughout the fall. He made several great recommendations for me regarding golf as well as business development reading.
This spring I sent him a note to bring him up to speed on the new opportunity I had undertaken with One Key and to give him my new contact information. I didn't hear back from him right away and hadn't received a reply even after my fourth attempt a couple of months later. I had two very applicable introduction that felt would add a lot of value to his company and the trajectory that they had. These two individuals that I was hoping to connect with "Stuart" in my mind would be home run referrals for what he had expressly told me last fall he hoped to accomplish in the coming year.
When I finally did hear back from him, I had to remind him who I was and how we had met. When we finally got over that hump I told him that I would love to connect with him by phone to catch up on where he and his company were and where they were headed and see what I might do to help.
His response: "I appreciate the follow up but I do not see a business opportunity between our companies... I am simply too busy now to focus on anything but my company."
When I got his email I read it and laughed. I wonder if the thought ever came to him that the strengthen of his network might be the very focusing on his company that he needed. But since he didn't give me the courtesy of a two minute phone call, I guess he will never find out.
Your network is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it becomes.