about "would"

[hooootdog]

Many years later, after I graduated from Harvard with honors and became a lawyer and the CEO of my own
company, my mother refl ected that, when I was a child, no one would have predicted a successful future— no one
except a mother, that is. My parents were pivotal in helping me through a nightmare that engulfs so many children,
especially young Black boys.

Excerpted from Essence, November 1, 2004
By Carlos Watson

i'm not so clear about the use of "would" in the sentence "no one would have predicted a successful future— no one except a mother" is it the same as we see in " without her help i would have failed my exam."?


millions of thanks

[Tdol]

We use would when talking about predictions that were made in the past- They thought he would be successful. Here, the time period (his childhood) is mentioned and clearly finished, so it is not like 'without her help', which is basically the same as a third conditional - If she hadn't helped me, I would have failed - it is reporting a past prediction, though a prediction that was never made.

[hooootdog]

We use would when talking about predictions that were made in the past- They thought he would be successful. Here, the time period (his childhood) is mentioned and clearly finished, so it is not like 'without her help', which is basically the same as a third conditional - If she hadn't helped me, I would have failed - it is reporting a past prediction, though a prediction that was never made.

thanks for your help! but i still don't understand why it is "no one would have predicted...", can i say "no one would predict a successful future?