Is it normal people who are complete failures are also narcisists?

People like this really are irritating. They put on this big dog and pony show about what they can do, or could have done, or blah blah blah if only this or that hadn't happened and in reality it's just them that "happened". No one takes them seriously and even if you try to communicate this sort of thing to them, they immediately resort to either insulting you or go right back to their delusional denial of what their life is. More often than not they try to bring you down to their level. They define the idea of "misery loves company".

Look up the Dunning–Kruger effect.

"... a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is."
- Wikipedia

I think I know what you're talking about, OP, but can you give a specific example?

Sounds like my ex.

They're trying to compensate for the things they lack in. People that act like that are the most insecure of all.

"Is there a term for this?"

Yes, narcissism! What you described is literally a tell tale narcissistic trait. Inflated sense of importance, delusions of grandeur.