Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg worked for the U.S. Department of Treasury. IBM's Virginia Rometty was president of her sorority. Virgin's Richard Branson didn't fancy school.

We may not know what it's like to be worth billions of dollars or be chosen as Fortune's #1 most powerful businesswoman, but we can certainly learn from these C-suiters' paths to the top — and hey, at least dropping out of college doesn't preclude you from immense success.

See also: 10 Top Execs Share Their Social Media Secrets

Check out the infographic above to learn what these 12 business movers and shakers did to get to the C-suite. What do you think of their paths, and how do they compare to yours? Tell us in the comments.

Mashable Infographic, images: Andrew Burton/Getty Images, Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Will Ollver/AFP/GettyImages, Kim White/Getty Images, Mario Tama/Getty Images, Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images, Brian Ach/Getty Images for TechCrunch, Jordan Naylor/WireImage, Fernando Leon/Getty Images for TIME, Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images, Kris Connor/Getty Images, and Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images