Usually, this person tried them once, may or may not have incorporated necessary basics like grounding and centering and spent perhaps a few minutes on the actual work . I can't crawl in anyone's head to see how visualization is done, but I suspect it wasn't. There has been several occassions where some unlooked for boon has come my way, and I'll realize that I was looking for it in my first year of practice while I'm on year four. There could be millions of reasons a spell doesn't work or doesn't work quite the way it's expected. After following all the basics of creating a sacred space, I have to consider carefully how I'm raising energy.
Most people say they are easily emotional within the circle.
I might spend a few minutes meditating on something that evokes the desired emotional response before I commence raising or directing energy towards my desire. Next, I have learned that I need to repeat my performance. The spell repetition also helps you evaluate where you're at in achieving your goal and lets you pinpoint what further mundane work you need to do. I've also found reusing the same tools invests energy in them. This way I know that my athame is ideal for projecting energy while my wand works well for directing it.