CARGO
Learning to Be Carried in a Life Built on Strength
“I organized thirty-two people to carry me up a mountain—and still wasn’t prepared for what it would mean to actually be carried.”
Then came Mount Kilimanjaro.
For most of his life, Jeff Harmon had learned to make things work.
When a progressive neurological disease gradually took away his ability to walk, he adapted. He found another way forward. As a husband, father, entrepreneur, coach, and leader, he could still contribute. Still solve problems. Still lead. Still be useful.
Thirty-two people traveled to Tanzania around an audacious goal: help Jeff climb the tallest mountain in Africa in a specially designed trail chair.
But as equipment broke, plans unraveled, and the team was pushed toward its limits, the climb began exposing something Jeff hadn’t expected: how much of his identity was tied to being useful, contributing, and carrying his share of the load.
At times, he wasn’t leading or solving the next problem.
He was cargo.
CARGO is about what happened on that mountain—and what Jeff has continued to wrestle with since coming down. It’s a story of strength and dependence, leadership and brotherhood, disability and faith. And it’s about the things capable people learn to carry: responsibility, expectations, the needs of others, and the quiet pressure to hold it all together.
Because sometimes the question isn’t whether you’re strong enough to carry more. It’s whether you’re strong enough to be carried.
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Selected excerpts from CARGO—and a glimpse into what it means to be carried when you’ve built a life on strength.
You’ll also get occasional updates as the book heads toward its March 2027 release.
“Our greatest growth often comes in life’s hardest moments.”