There is no failure in the law of attraction. The presence or the absence of something are both attracted outcomes.

We attract everything in line with our dominant vibration (the way we generally feel).

Your question is not detailed enough for me to provide a specific answer but it will ultimately come down to how they are applying that knowledge.

When I first knew about the Law of Attraction, for the first couple of years, I barely did anything to mould my vibration away from negative emotions and my life was a real mess. These days, I take the time and work on my dominant vibration and try and put the techniques I know about the Law of Attraction into practice. And not because I want to have things maifested in my life because I have learned with time that whatever it is that I desire, when it eventually gets manifested, my happiness is very short lived and I launch the next desire. Therefore, manifestations are less important to me now.

I work on my dominant vibration because I like the feeling of happiness that I feel when I do it. And the results are quite shocking sometimes.

The way you have asked your question hints at the fact that the people in question are trying to get their desires manifested and only then will they be happy. This introduces an element of 'imcompleteness' or 'lack' in their vibration which will stop their desires from getting manifested. In which case, both of them should fail.

I agree with Traveller and Rani - there is no failure. One obviously had their attention on the success while the other one had their attention on the lack of it - one had complete faith in what they were attracting while the other had doubt.