I will first assume that the $C^*$-algebra is unital. If it is not one-dimensional, then because every element of the algebra has the form $a+ib$ with $a$ and $b$ self-adjoint, there is a self-adjoint element $a$ that is not a scalar multiple of the identity. Then the spectrum of $a$ contains at least $2$ distinct elements. Otherwise, if say $\lambda$ were the only element of the spectrum of $a$, then $a-\lambda 1$ would be a self-adjoint element with spectral radius $0$, hence $a=\lambda 1$.
Since the spectrum of $a$ has at least $2$ elements, there exist continuous ($\mathbb C$-valued or even positive real-valued) functions $f$ and $g$ on the spectrum of $a$ such that $\|f(a)\|=\|g(a)\|=1$ and $f(a)g(a)=0$. It follows that $\|f(a)+g(a)\|=\|f(a)-g(a)\|=1$. Hence
$$2\|f(a)\|^2+2\|g(a)\|^2=4>2=\|f(a)+g(a)\|^2+\|f(a)-g(a)\|^2,$$ in violation of the parallelogram law. Alternatively, $\{f(a)+tg(a):t\in[-1,1]\}$ is a closed convex set with infinitely many elements of minimal norm.
If the algebra is nonunital, you can still find $a$, $f$, and $g$ as above, but you need $f(0)=g(0)=0$, so the spectrum of $a$ should have $2$ distinct nonzero elements, which means slightly more is needed to see that such $a$ exists. This feels like overkill, but in this case the algebra is infinite dimensional, which implies that it has a self-adjoint element with infinite spectrum. Note that a self-adjoint element whose spectrum has only one nonzero element is a scalar multiple of a projection, and there should be an easier way to see that there are self-adjoint elements that are not multiples of projections, but none comes to mind.