At the start of his career, Justin Guarini seemed to have it all: fame, fortune and a promising future in Hollywood.
After becoming the runner-up on the first season of “American Idol” in 2002, Guarini was thrust into the spotlight seemingly overnight. But when his Hollywood dream came crashing down, he found himself in a dark place that he would eventually come to view as one of his greatest blessings.
“I think it was one of the greatest things that could ever have happened to me,” Guarini, who recently released his book, “Center Stage Confidence: How to Own Your Story and Command Any Room,” told Fox News Digital. “Failure is the greatest teacher, one of the greatest teachers that we can have in any given situation because in that failure, you have one of two paths. You either give up or you keep going.”
However, this mindset didn’t sink in until much later.
In his book, Guarini recalled the moment he learned he had been dropped by his record label, RCA, in 2003.
“I stared at the TV in shock as my entire world came crumbling down around my ears,” Guarini, who said he learned the news during a “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live,” wrote in his book. “Every illusion of fame, fortune, and glory fell away in an instant — only to be replaced by the silence of loss. In that moment, the veil of my arrogance, my assumptions, and my entitlement were lifted away, and I saw my life for what it had become.”
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“I spent months playing my sad story on repeat,” he added. “I lost weight, slept more and more, and became less and less like myself, and the people who loved me started to notice and worry. I was living the ghost of the life I had always dreamed of and burning money and time in equal and absurd measure.”
As the first runner-up in “Idol” history, Guarini believed his future in the entertainment industry was secure. But his early success proved difficult to sustain.
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In 2003, he released his self-titled debut album and starred alongside Kelly Clarkson in the musical romantic comedy “From Justin to Kelly.” While his album debuted in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, the movie flopped, and criticism of his performance and appearance continued.
WATCH: ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ STAR JUSTIN GUARINI ENDURED DARK SPIRAL AFTER HOLLYWOOD DREAM COLLAPSED
As his career stalled, Guarini struggled to reconcile his newfound reality with the life he had envisioned.
“There have been plenty of people who’ve given up and failed and found other things,” Guarini told Fox News Digital. “That’s really wonderful. But for me, that dark place of not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to look at myself in the mirror, not wanting to go out and see anything, it just was a period of isolation. And it’s very easy to do when you live behind a gate in an exclusive community.”
Over time, Guarini began to change his outlook.
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“I realized that there were still people celebrating me,” he said. “I realized there was still something worth celebrating in my life. And it wasn’t the vanity metrics of how many people voted for me or how many followers I would end up having or the amount of money I could make or blah, blah. It was just doing something and going back to something that I really truly loved.”
For Guarini, that meant returning to the stage.
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“For me, that came in the form of just going back out and getting on the stage and singing for people. And I would do it at everything from gala events to state fairs to wherever.”
Those smaller performances eventually paved the way for a new chapter in his career.
After independently releasing his second album in 2005, Guarini found opportunities in television before making his Broadway debut in “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” in 2010.
He went on to appear in several Broadway productions, including “American Idiot,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Wicked.” In 2015, he introduced audiences to another side of his talent when he began portraying Lil’ Sweet, the flamboyant character featured in Diet Dr Pepper advertising campaigns.
Looking back, Guarini said his willingness to embrace failure rather than run from it ultimately led to opportunities he might never have experienced had his initial fame endured.
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“So there was a cascading effect. So the bottom line was being willing to sit in that place of failure, of discontent, darkness, but continue to go and continue to just say, ‘Okay, how can I continue to move through this space of discomfort, learn about myself and keep going?’ And ultimately, that led to a massive amount of growth that I don’t think would have happened had I just, you know, stayed famous.”
Now, nearly 25 years after his “Idol” debut, Guarini said his successes and failures have taught him one thing: don’t give up.
“And so, for me, it has been almost 25 years now of some awesome ups and downs, and every single time I go up and down and up and down, it’s just a consistency again of staying in the game,” he said.
“And so, finally, just staying in the game… because it doesn’t matter if it’s the media, it doesn’t matter if it’s entertainment, doesn’t matter if it’s business. This life in this world is cyclical and if you stay in the game, and you do good work, and you’re kind to people, the opportunity always comes back around to you, and you’ll be more prepared to take advantage of it when it does,” he added.
