I'll take on the challenge to vanity by suggesting that it is a necessary thing for a person to be "vain" to be good at anything.
You can't be "zealous" without it. It's the definition of zealotry that you are vain and self-absorbed.
Yes, I was as much as I could have been. I thought I was doing the right thing. I was raised Catholic, went to parochial school, was an altar boy, served at countless masses, (one funeral - I hated those) and weddings (actually only two).
I later became an atheist, and then came in contact w/JW's. I was certain they were wrong, and then I convinced myself that it was right. A year after I got baptized I was appointed an MS and started to regular pioneer while I was working full-time. I did that for 15 years. I was appointed an elder and through my experiences in all this finally ended up here.
It's a life-cycle. I don't look back on anything I've done or experienced in life and imagine that "I was stupid" or that I would have done things differently. That's a waste of time and it would be a lie as well. I am what I am and the person I am would have made those decisions over and over again in much the same way - the details might have been different, but the end game and experiences I had and have had would have amounted to the same thing.
It's not destiny, but it is integrity. I have discovered who I am and what my strengths and weaknesses are in all this. It has led me to the inevitable conclusion that "God", whoever or whatever he may be is not really concerned that anyone know the truth right now and that we are all just being processed through. I simply cannot accept anything other than universal salvation at this point. Anything less than this makes God a tyrant and a monster.