Andy Grove is the legendary former CEO of Intel and his office actually overlooked California’s Great America. One of the most important conversations in the history took place as he was looking out his window at the park. At that point in time Intel was primarily in the memory chip business and losing to Japanese companies subsidized by the government of Japan. Grove remarked to Gordon Moore (then CEO and co-founder), “If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?” Moore replied immediately, “He would get us out of memories.” At that point Grove remarked, Why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back and do it ourselves?”

“If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?”

-Andy Grove of Intel

That conversation marked Intel’s historic pivot away from memory chips to focus entirely on microprocessors, saving the company from ruin. This was also a conversation with Gordon Moore, famous for “Moore’s Law” about computing power. Many companies would probably be well served to ask Mr. Grove’s famous question. Often emotion can cloud our judgment, especially when something feels core to our identity. Was Mr. Grove inspired by something he saw that day? Maybe yes and maybe no. However, a theme park was the backdrop for one of the most pivotal conversations in American business history.